Abstract
IN their recent paper1 B. F. J. Schonland and J. P. T. Viljoen throw doubts on the ability of ionisation methods to detect the penetrating radiation from thunderclouds. However, this method has been in use at this station during the thunderstorm season October 1932–April 1933 with practically the same results as those obtained by Schonland and Viljoen. The order of the effect was about 1 per cent, as in their case, but storms had an effect when less than 30 km. distant. Storms less than 15 km. distant did not appear to have any effect and no appreciable diminution in the ionisation was observable from the majority of overhead storms. An important effect noted was that storms to the west of the station had more effect on the ionisation than those to the east, a fact which tends to confirm the electron spray hypothesis. The closer distance of approach of the storms, too, probably finds an explanation in this hypothesis as put forward by Hulbert2, for the station is practically located on the magnetic equator.
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References
Proc. Roy. Soc. A., May, 1933.
Phys. Rev., 37, 1; 1931.
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CAIRNS, J. Penetrating Radiation from Thunderclouds. Nature 132, 174 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132174a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132174a0
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