Terrestrial Gamma Flashes at Ground Level - a Research and Education Program

历史悠久的黑人学院和大学-本科生计划为一些项目提供支持，这些项目旨在解决非裔美国学生在工程、地球科学和本科生水平上代表性严重不足的问题。泽维尔大学的这个项目将涉及一组本科生物理专业的学生，他们将通过建造一组可以从地面观测地面伽马闪光的探测器来观察闪电产生的伽马射线。这项工作将与路易斯安那州立大学(LSU)合作完成。通过这个项目，一批物理专业的本科生将获得研究经验，这些经验可能会促进他们攻读物理学学位或相关的科学、技术、工程和数学学科的兴趣，从而有助于扩大代表不足的群体对该学科的参与。这个项目将更新路易斯安那州立大学目前的地面伽马闪电和高能雷暴屋顶阵列闪烁体，以便提高对地面伽马闪电的敏感度，将能量范围扩大到10 MeV；将在波多黎各安装一个由10个探测器组成的TETRA阵列，安装在闪电密度高于巴吞鲁日并且有卫星覆盖的地点，以便能够同时观测地面伽马闪电；并将增加电场磨坊、闪电探测器和气象测量，以补充伽马射线测量，了解雷暴环境和带电粒子加速过程之间的联系。与路易斯安那州立大学的合作将使泽维尔大学的教职员工和学生获得实验天体物理学方面的专业知识，这是泽维尔大学物理系新的研究重点。

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program provides support for projects that offer solutions to the severe underrepresentation of African American students in engineering, the geosciences and physics at the undergraduate level. The project at Xavier University will involve a group of undergraduate physics majors in experiments to observe gamma rays from lightning by constructing an array of detectors that can observe terrestrial gamma flashes from the ground. This work will be done in collaboration with Louisiana State University (LSU). Through this project, a group of undergraduate physics majors will gain research experiences that may further their interest in pursuing a degree in physics or in a related science, technology, engineering and mathematics discipline, thereby contributing to broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in the discipline. The project will update the scintillators in the current TGF and Energetic Thunderstorm Rooftop Array (TETRA) at Louisiana State University so that the sensitivity to terrestrial gamma flashes is increased and the energy range is extended to 10 MeV; will install a TETRA array of ten detectors in Puerto Rico in a location where the lightning density is higher than in Baton Rouge and where there is satellite coverage that will enable the simultaneous observation of terrestrial gamma flashes; and will add electric field mills, lightning detectors, and meteorological measurements to complement the gamma ray measurements and to understand the connection between the thunderstorm environment and charged particle acceleration processes. The collaboration with LSU will allow faculty and students at Xavier University to gain expertise in experimental astrophysics, a research concentration new to the Physics Department at Xavier University.