The observation of Gamma Ray Bursts and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes with AGILE

TL;DR

The AGILE mission has successfully observed Gamma Ray Bursts and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes, detecting high-energy emissions and short transients, advancing understanding of these phenomena in space and near-Earth environments.

Contribution

This paper reports the first observations of GRBs and TGF transients with AGILE, highlighting detections above 25 MeV and very short gamma-ray flashes.

Findings

Detection of three GRBs above 25 MeV

Identification of short gamma-ray transients as Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes

AGILE's capability to observe high-energy gamma-ray phenomena

Abstract

Since its early phases of operation, the AGILE mission is successfully observing Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in the hard X-ray band with the SuperAGILE imager and in the MeV range with the Mini-Calorimeter. Up to now, three firm GRB detections were obtained above 25 MeV and some bursts were detected with lower statistical confidence in the same energy band. When a GRB is localized, either by SuperAGILE or Swift/BAT or INTEGRAL/IBIS or Fermi/GBM or IPN, inside the field of view of the Gamma Ray Imager of AGILE, a detection is searched for in the gamma ray band or an upper limit is provided. A promising result of AGILE is the detection of very short gamma ray transients, a few ms in duration and possibly identified with Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes. In this paper we show the current status of the observation of Gamma Ray Bursts and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes with AGILE.