2014/10/06 by Merlin Kole, M. Pearce, Mark Pearce +1 · 1 citation
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Computational physics #Cosmic ray #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Monte Carlo method #Neutron #Neutron detection #Neutron monitor #Nuclear physics #Physics #Radiation Therapy and Dosimetry #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Spectral line #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2014.10.002
published as Astropart.Phys. 62 (2015) 230-240 · Accepted by Astroparticle Physics, awaiting publication
arxiv created 2014/10/06 · openalex publication_date 2014/10/14 · arxiv updated 2017/03/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In order to optimise the design of space instruments making use of detection materials with low atomic numbers, an understanding of the atmospheric neutron environment and its dependencies on time and position is needed. To produce a simple equation based model, Monte Carlo simulations were performed to obtain the atmospheric neutron fluxes produced by charged galactic cosmic ray interactions with the atmosphere. Based on the simulation results the omnidirectional neutron environment was parametrised including dependencies on altitude, magnetic latitude and solar activity. The upward- and downward-moving component of the atmospheric neutron flux are considered separately. The energy spectra calculated using these equations were found to be in good agreement with data from a purpose built balloon-borne neutron detector, high altitude aircraft data and previously published simulation based spectra.