Measurement of the Electrical Properties of a Thundercloud Through Muon Imaging by the GRAPES-3 Experiment

The GRAPES-3 muon telescope located in Ooty, India records rapid (similar to 10 min) variations in the muon intensity during major thunderstorms. Out of a total of 184 thunderstorms recorded during the interval of April 2011-December 2014, the one on December 1, 2014 produced a massive potential of 1.3 GV. The electric field measured by four well-separated (up to 6 km) monitors on the ground was used to help estimate some of the properties of this thundercloud, including its altitude and area that were found to be 11.4 km above mean sea level and >= 380 km(2), respectively. A charging time of 6 min to reach 1.3 GV implied the delivery of a power of >= 2 GW by this thundercloud that was moving at a speed of similar to 60 km h(-1). This work possibly provides the first direct evidence for the generation of gigavolt potentials in thunderclouds that could also possibly explain the production of highest-energy (100 MeV) gamma rays in the terrestrial gamma-ray flashes.