Effect of tornadic supercell thunderstorms on the atmospheric muon flux
Phys. Rev. D 111, 023018 – Published 8 January, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.023018
Abstract
Tornadoes are severe weather phenomena characterized by a violently rotating column of air connecting the ground to a parent storm. Within the United States, hundreds of tornadoes occur every year. Despite this, the dynamics of tornado formation and propagation are not particularly well understood, in part due to the challenge of instrumentation: many existing instruments for measuring atmospheric properties are in-situ detectors, making deployment in or near an active or developing tornado difficult. Here, we combine local atmospheric and cosmic ray air shower simulation to explore the potential for remote measurement of the density field within tornado-producing supercell thunderstorms by examining directional variations of the atmospheric muon flux.
