Extreme thunderstorm ground enhancements registered on Aragats in 2023

Abstract

In 2023, a series of intense thunderstorm ground enhancements (TGEs) were recorded on Mount Aragats in Armenia, with seven events exceeding the fair-weather cosmic ray flux by more than 75%. This study comprehensively analyzes these TGEs, investigating the atmospheric conditions and electric fields contributing to their occurrence. Key insights include discovering relationships between TGE electron content and the location of atmospheric electric fields, recovering electron and gamma-ray energy spectra, and the impact of the cloud charge structure. The findings offer a deeper understanding of TGEs’ role in atmospheric physics and its synergy with high-energy astrophysics. Published by the American Physical Society 2024