cospar.doc-BartolResearchInstitute-UniversityofDelaware.docVIP

PRELIMINARY VALIDATION OF COMPUTATIONAL PROCEDURES FOR A NEW ATMOSPHERIC IONIZING RADIATION (AIR) MODEL John M. Clem 1 , Giovanni De Angelis 2,3, Paul Goldhagen 4, John W. Wilson 2 1 Bartol Research Institute University of Delaware, Newark, DE 2 NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA3 Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Rome, Italy4 Environmental Measurements Laboratory, US Department of Energy, New York ABSTRACT The propagation of primary particles through the Earths atmosphere has been calculated with a three dimensional Monte Carlo transport program FLUKA [1,2]. Primary protons and alphas are generated within the rigidity range of 0.5GV-20TV uniform in cos2(. For a given location, primaries above the effective cutoff rigidity are transported through the atmosphere. Alpha particles are initially transported with a separate package called HEAVY to simulate fragmentation [3]. This package interfaces with FLUKA to provide interaction starting points for each nucleon originating from a helium nucleus. Results from this calculation will be presented and compared to measurements. INTRODUCTION The earth is continually bathed in high-energy ionizing radiation that comes from outside the solar system, called galactic cosmic rays which consist of roughly 90% protons and 8% helium nuclei (also called alpha particles, though of different origin) with the remainder being heavier nuclei and electrons [Gaisser, 1990].When these particles penetrate the magnetic fields of the solar system and the Earth and reach the Earth’s atmosphere, they collide with atomic nuclei in air and create cascades of secondary radiation of every kind [Reitz, 1993]. The intensity of the different particles making up atmospheric cosmic radiation, their energy distribution, and their potential effect on avionics and aircraft occupants vary with altitude, location in the geomagnetic field, and time in the suns magnetic activity cycle [Reitz, 1993; Wilson, 2000; Heinrich et al., 1999]. The atmosphe