Cosmic rays, a new tool for studying tornadoes

12 Jul. () –

A new study suggests that cosmic rays may offer scientists another way to track and study violent tornadoes. and other severe weather events.

By combining local weather data with complex astrophysical simulations, researchers explored whether a device that normally detects high-energy particles called muons could be used to remotely measure supercell storms that produce tornadoes.

Conventional instrumentation for tracking tornadoes relies on measurements made with technologies such as drones or weather balloons, but those methods often require humans to get dangerously close to the path of an approaching storm.

However, by studying how these storms affect muonswhich are heavier than electrons and travel through matter at nearly the speed of light, these findings may act as another tool for scientists to gain a more accurate picture of underlying climate conditions.

“The thing about atmospheric muons is that they are sensitive to the properties of the atmosphere they are traveling through,” he said. it’s a statement William Luszczak, lead author of the study and a member of the Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics at Ohio State University.

“If you have a bunch of muons that traveled through a thunderstorm, the amount you’re going to measure on the other side is different than a bunch of muons that traveled through a nice day.”

The study is published in the arXiv preprint server.

Compared to other cosmic particles, muons have many unique real-world applications, including helping scientists peer inside large, dense objects like pyramids or detect dangerous nuclear material. Now, Luszczak’s simulations in this paper imply that supercell thunderstorms cause very slight changes in the number, direction, and intensity of these particles.

To determine this, the researchers applied a three-dimensional cloud model that could account for multiple variables, including wind, potential temperature, rain, snow and hailThen, using atmospheric observations from the 2011 supercell that passed over El Reno, Oklahoma, and spawned a tornado outbreak, Luszczak applied that information to measure variations in air pressure in the region around a simulated storm over the span of an hour.

Overall, their results found that Muons are indeed affected by the pressure field inside tornadoes, although more research is needed to learn more about the process.

In terms of how well it might work in the field, the concept is especially appealing because using muons to predict and analyze future weather patterns would also mean that scientists wouldn’t necessarily have to try to place instruments very close to a tornado to get these pressure measurements, Luszczak said.

DETECTOR SIZE MATTERS

Still, the type of muon particle detector Luszczak’s paper considers is much smaller than other, better-known cosmic ray projects, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina and the University of Utah’s Telescope Array.

Unfortunately, these detectors are not located in places where tornadoes can be studied, Luszczak said, but if placed in a region like Tornado Alley in the United States, researchers imagine the device could easily supplement typical meteorological and barometric measurements for tornado activity.

Having said that, The size of the device also influences the accuracy of its measurements, since increasing its size improves the number of particles it can detect, Luszczak said.

The smallest detector the researchers describe in this paper is 50 meters across, or about the size of five buses. But while such a tool would be portable enough to ensure scientists could place it near many different types of storm systems, Being so small, it would probably face some errors in data collection.Luszczak said.

Despite these potential setbacks, as supercell storms typically form and disappear within short periods, the paper notes that it may be worthwhile for future scientists to consider deploying a large detector in some regions, which would likely be a permanent stationary facility to capture as many muons as possible during severe weather events.

More importantly, because current weather modeling systems are directly tied to when and where severe weather warnings are issued, using cosmic rays to augment those models would give the public a more detailed sense of the various twists and turns of a storm, as well as more time to prepare for the phenomenon.

“By having better measurements of the atmosphere surrounding a tornado, our modeling improves, which in turn improves the accuracy of our warnings,” Luszczak said. “This concept is very promising and it’s a really exciting idea to try to put into practice.”