The iSTORM Instrument for Airborne Measurements of Gamma-Ray Emissions from Thunderstorms
Daniel Shy, J. Eric Grove, Bernard Phlips, Alena Schell, Mary Johnson-Rambert, Mason Quick, David Corredor, Scott Podgorny, Roy Salinas, Mitch Davis
physics.ao-ph, astro-ph.EP, astro-ph.IM, nucl-ex
Submitted: 2026-08-06
Updated: 2026-08-12
License: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
The gist: The in-Situ Thunderstorm Observer for Radiation Mechanisms (iSTORM) is a gamma-ray spectrometer to study gamma-ray transients originating from thunderstorms, such as glows and terrestrial gamma-ray
Terminology
Abstract
The in-Situ Thunderstorm Observer for Radiation Mechanisms (iSTORM) is a gamma-ray spectrometer to study gamma-ray transients originating from thunderstorms, such as glows and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). It is designed and built by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory for deployment aboard a NASA ER-2 aircraft. Using an array of 32 one-inch-diameter CeBr 3 scintillators read out with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), the instrument achieves an energy range of about 250 keV to 5 MeV under flight conditions, with a total geometrical area of 157 cm squared. One of two gamma-ray instruments in the ALOFT campaign, iSTORM recorded glows, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), and the newly discovered flickering gamma-ray flashes (FGFs).
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