Terrestrial Gamma Flashes at Ground Level - a Research and Education Program

Xavier University Of Louisiana, New Orleans LA

Investigators

Abstract

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program provides support for projects that offer solutions to the severe underrepresentation of African American students in engineering, the geosciences and physics at the undergraduate level. The project at Xavier University will involve a group of undergraduate physics majors in experiments to observe gamma rays from lightning by constructing an array of detectors that can observe terrestrial gamma flashes from the ground. This work will be done in collaboration with Louisiana State University (LSU). Through this project, a group of undergraduate physics majors will gain research experiences that may further their interest in pursuing a degree in physics or in a related science, technology, engineering and mathematics discipline, thereby contributing to broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in the discipline. The project will update the scintillators in the current TGF and Energetic Thunderstorm Rooftop Array (TETRA) at Louisiana State University so that the sensitivity to terrestrial gamma flashes is increased and the energy range is extended to 10 MeV; will install a TETRA array of ten detectors in Puerto Rico in a location where the lightning density is higher than in Baton Rouge and where there is satellite coverage that will enable the simultaneous observation of terrestrial gamma flashes; and will add electric field mills, lightning detectors, and meteorological measurements to complement the gamma ray measurements and to understand the connection between the thunderstorm environment and charged particle acceleration processes. The collaboration with LSU will allow faculty and students at Xavier University to gain expertise in experimental astrophysics, a research concentration new to the Physics Department at Xavier University.