11 de setembro de 2018 | Altas Energias, Publicações
M.T.Pazianotto, M.A.Cortés-Giraldo, C.A.Federico, O.L.Gonçales, G.Hubert, J.M.Quesada, B.V.Carlson
Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 97, p.106-117, 2017
04/11/2017
Abstract
Several applications exist that calculate cosmic-ray-induced particle (CRIP) spectra as a function of the altitude in the atmosphere. In general, the Earth's magnetic field is only used to modulate the primary cosmic radiation that arrives at the top of the atmosphere, but it can also modulate low-energy charged particles at flight altitudes. The effects of the Earth's magnetic field on the angular distributions of CRIP transport in the atmosphere should be quantified, because it furnishes important data for the development of applications for aircrew radiation protection, onboard dosimetry and the simulation of irradiation of sensitive equipment and particle detector systems used at ground level, flight and atmospheric balloon altitudes. In this work we calculate the angular distribution of the cosmic-ray-induced particles (CRIP) for altitudes from ground level up to 80 km using an application based on Geant4 developed in previous works. In order to quantify the effects of the Earth's magnetic field (EMF) on the angular distribution of the CRIP, the calculations were carried out both including the EMF in the South Atlantic Magnetic region and omitting it. A part of these results were compared with analytical calculations of the ratio between the mean free path of the primary particles from the cosmic radiation and the deflection radii at different altitudes in the atmosphere. The albedos of neutrons and protons at 80 km were estimated and compared with the QARM and ATMORAD codes, which ignore the Earth's magnetic field.