Abstract
We present our results on the second year of TOTO-Cheyenne (TGFs On Top
Of Cheyenne), a continuing collaboration of the US Air Force Academy and
the Naval Research Laboratory. The project’s goal is to study the
ionizing radiation as lightning strikes near the antenna farm on the top
of Cheyenne Mountain, near Colorado Springs CO. Thunderstorms and
accompanying lightning produce ionizing radiation on time scales from
milliseconds to minutes. This radiation includes terrestrial gamma-ray
flashes, hard X-rays from stepped leaders, gamma-ray glows, and
thunderstorm ground enhancements. Recent measurements indicate that
getting up close and personal with the storms might produce more details
about the complex processes inside. The US Rocky Mountains offer the
opportunity to do just that by getting closer to the charge layers. This
year’s experiment (starting in May 2019 and continuing to October 2019)
involved the setup of a high speed camera at the Air Force Academy
facing south to watch Cheyenne Mountain plus the reinstallation of a
small gamma-ray and X-ray detection system (NaI and plastic
scintillators) on the mountain. This year has proven to be a very active
storm year. As of 20 July, there were already 25 strikes within 2 km of
the detector (compared to 1 strike during the summer 2018).