Correlation of radio and gamma emissions in lightning initiation.

The results of simultaneous radio and gamma emission measurements during thunderstorms are presented. A gamma detector situated at the height 3840 m and two radio detectors of Tien-Shan Mountain Scientific Station (altitude 3340 m) registered intensive gamma flashes and radio pulses during the time of lightning initiation. The radio-gamma correlation grows abruptly at the initial moment (a few hundred microseconds), and the correlation coefficient reaches 0.

Strong flux of low-energy neutrons produced by thunderstorms.

We report here for the first time about the registration of an extraordinary high flux of low-energy neutrons generated during thunderstorms. The measured neutron count rate enhancements are directly connected with thunderstorm discharges. The low-energy neutron flux value obtained in our work is a challenge for the photonuclear channel of neutron generation in thunderstorm: the estimated value of the needed high-energy γ-ray flux is about 3 orders of magnitude higher than that one observed.