Nasa animation shows how thunderstorm can produce positron beam (FermiLAT)

marcus

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GL...derstorms.html

Spacecraft Fermi-LAT was hit by a beam of positrons directed upwards from a thunderstorm cloud-top. The positrons annihilated producing 510 keV gamma, which Fermi-LAT detected.

The animation shows an odd chain of events starting with the strong electric field at the top of the cloud and eventually resulting in a beam of positrons following (spiraling around along) a geomagnetic field line