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Hariharan B, Chandra A, Dugad SR, Gupta SK, Jagadeesan P, Jain A, Mohanty PK, Morris SD, Nayak PK, Rakshe PS, Ramesh K, Rao BS, Reddy LV, Zuberi M, Hayashi Y, Kawakami S, Ahmad S, Kojima H, Oshima A, Shibata S, Muraki Y, Tanaka K. Measurement of the Electrical Properties of a Thundercloud Through Muon Imaging by the GRAPES-3 Experiment. Phys Rev Lett 2019; 122:105101. [PMID: 30932668 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.122.105101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2019] [Revised: 01/21/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
The GRAPES-3 muon telescope located in Ooty, India records rapid (∼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 ∼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.
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Affiliation(s)
- B Hariharan
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - A Chandra
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - S R Dugad
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - S K Gupta
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - P Jagadeesan
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - A Jain
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - P K Mohanty
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - S D Morris
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - P K Nayak
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - P S Rakshe
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - K Ramesh
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - B S Rao
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - L V Reddy
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - M Zuberi
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
| | - Y Hayashi
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
- Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
| | - S Kawakami
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
- Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
| | - S Ahmad
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
- Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India
| | - H Kojima
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
- College of Engineering, Chubu University, Kasugai, Aichi 487-8501, Japan
| | - A Oshima
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
- College of Engineering, Chubu University, Kasugai, Aichi 487-8501, Japan
| | - S Shibata
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
- College of Engineering, Chubu University, Kasugai, Aichi 487-8501, Japan
| | - Y Muraki
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
- Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi 446-8601, Japan
| | - K Tanaka
- Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Raj Bhavan, Ooty 643001, India
- Graduate School of Information Sciences, Hiroshima City University, Hiroshima 731-3194, Japan
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Shukla RA, Achanta VG, Dugad SR, Freeman J, Garde CS, Gupta SK, Khandekar PD, Kurup AM, Lokhandwala SS, Los S, Prabhu SS, Rakshe PS. Multi-channel programmable power supply with temperature compensation for silicon sensors. Rev Sci Instrum 2016; 87:015114. [PMID: 26827360 DOI: 10.1063/1.4940424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Silicon Photo-Multipliers (SiPMs) are increasingly becoming popular for discrete photon counting applications due to the wealth of advantages they offer over conventional photo-detectors such as photo-multiplier tubes and hybrid photo-diodes. SiPMs are used in variety of applications ranging from high energy physics and nuclear physics experiments to medical diagnostics. The gain of a SiPM is directly proportional to the difference between applied and breakdown voltage of the device. However, the breakdown voltage depends critically on the ambient temperature and has a large temperature co-efficient in the range of 40-60 mV/°C resulting in a typical gain variation of 3%-5%/°C [Dinu et al., in IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference and 17th Room Temperature Semiconductor Detector Workshop (IEEE, 2010), p. 215]. We plan to use the SiPM as a replacement for PMT in the cosmic ray experiment (GRAPES-3) at Ooty [Gupta et al., Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 540, 311 (2005)]. There the SiPMs will be operated in an outdoor environment subjected to temperature variation of about 15 °C over a day. A gain variation of more than 50% was observed for such large variations in the temperature. To stabilize the gain of the SiPM under such operating conditions, a low-cost, multi-channel programmable power supply (0-90 V) was designed that simultaneously provides the bias voltage to 16 SiPMs. The programmable power supply (PPS) was designed to automatically adjust the operating voltage for each channel with a built-in closed loop temperature feedback mechanism. The PPS provides bias voltage with a precision of 6 mV and measures the load current with a precision of 1 nA. Using this PPS, a gain stability of 0.5% for SiPM (Hamamatsu, S10931-050P) has been demonstrated over a wide temperature range of 15 °C. The design methodology of the PPS system, its validation, and the results of the tests carried out on the SiPM is presented in this article. The proposed design also has the capability of gain stabilization of devices with non-linear thermal response.
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Affiliation(s)
- R A Shukla
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India
| | - V G Achanta
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India
| | - S R Dugad
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India
| | - J Freeman
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
| | - C S Garde
- Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology, Pune 411048, India
| | - S K Gupta
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India
| | - P D Khandekar
- Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology, Pune 411048, India
| | - A M Kurup
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India
| | - S S Lokhandwala
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India
| | - S Los
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
| | - S S Prabhu
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India
| | - P S Rakshe
- Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology, Pune 411048, India
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