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Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) originating from the Earth's atmosphere, accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning activity, is one of the hot spots in the interdisciplinary of cosmic ray and atmospheric physics. Over the years, satellite experiments have detected thousands of upward TGFs during thunderstorms, while ground-based experiments have observed some downward TGFs. Nowadays, it is generally accepted that TGFs accompanying lightning leader observed by satellite-based and ground-based experiments involve relativistic runaway electron avalanche (RREA) production. Due to triggering the RREA process needing a very large AEF strength and region, it is difficult to study the RREA process through ground-based experiments. In this paper, we adopt the CORSIKA, combined with a vertically uniform electric field model, to simulate the intensity and energy distribution of RREA electrons in thundercloud with different electric field strengths induced by seed electrons and the secondary electrons in extensive air shower (EAS) from vertical protons with different primary energies. The results show that the number of RREA electrons increases exponentially with the thickness of the thunderclouds, and also increases exponentially with the electric field strength. After pass through the atmosphere with an electric field of -3000 V/cm and a thickness of 800 m, the number of secondary electrons in RREA process increases by approximately 3×104 times. The characteristic length of avalanche (λ) decreases as the electric field strength increases. When the electric field is -1600 V/cm and -3000 V/cm, the λ are approximately ~282 m and ~69 m, respectively. The energy spectrum of RREA electrons gradually softens with increasing layer thickness and strength of electric field, and their mean energy increases with the electric field strength, when the thundercloud thickness exceeds 400 m, the mean energy of RREA electrons gradually stabilizes.When secondary particles pass through a thundercloud with an electric field strength of -3000 V/cm and a thickness of 800 m, the mean energy of RREA electrons is approximately 11.7 MeV. Through the Monte Carlo simulations, we successfully simulated the RREA process that is difficult to observe directly in the atmosphere. The simulation results provide important information for studying the characteristics of TGF source regions, offer clues for detecting downward TGF in ground-based experiments, and contribute to the research on the triggering mechanism of lightning in the atmosphere. In addition, our simulation results are expected to elucidate the relationship between TGF and lightning activity, promoting interdisciplinary research in the fields of atmospheric physics and cosmic ray physics.
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Keywords:
- Cosmic rays /
- Relativistic runaway electron avalanche /
- Thunderstorm electric field /
- Monte Carlo simulations
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