Ionospheric effects of transient celestial X-ray and gamma-ray events

Abstract

The paper presents the results on investigations of the ionospheric effects arising out of the transient celestial events at X-ray and gamma-ray energies such as that from X-ray novae and cosmic gamma-ray bursts. The VLF data recorded at Ahmedabad corresponding to the 164 kHz transmission from Tashkent are examined to see whether there are any observable effects time coincident with the transit of the X-ray novae Cen X-4 and Cet X-2 around their intensity maxima. Besides, the VLF data have also been examined in relation to the cosmic gamma-ray bursts detected by Vela, IMP-6 and OSO-7 satellites. Theoretical computations are carried out for estimating electron density enhancements using the available data on intensities and energy spectra for these events. Further, the observational resutls are explained in terms of these theoretical calculations.