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- Title
A Method for Calculating Atmospheric Radiation Produced by Relativistic Electron Precipitation.
- Authors
Xu, Wei; Marshall, Robert A.; Tobiska, W. Kent
- Abstract
Radiation safety in the Earth's atmosphere is of particular importance to our living environment, especially at aviation altitudes. Aviation radiation has been long known to originate primarily from the galactic and solar system: galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic protons. Recent flight measurements by the Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety experiment have uncovered another potential source for aviation radiation: Relativistic Electron Precipitation (REP) from the Van Allen radiation belts. REP can induce radiation at aviation altitudes through bremsstrahlung X‐ray production, which carries radiation down to the stratosphere and even the troposphere. In this study, using a suite of physics‐based Monte Carlo models, we characterize the effective radiation dose produced at altitudes between ground and low‐Earth‐orbit by relativistic precipitation electrons with energies between 100 keV and 10 MeV. We produce a lookup table of atmospheric radiation production that calculates the expected radiation dose for a given precipitation flux, spectrum, and pitch angle distribution. This lookup table provides results that are consistent with X‐ray measurements during radiation belt precipitation by balloon‐borne instruments in the stratosphere, and can be directly used to convert space‐borne measurements of precipitation fluxes into aviation radiation. This study represents our first attempt toward better understanding of REP's role in the atmospheric high‐altitude radiation environment. Plain Language Summary: Radiation safety at aviation altitudes is of particular importance to our living environment. Aviation radiation has been long known to be primarily produced by energetic particles originating from the galactic and solar system. However, recent flight measurements by the Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety experiment have uncovered another potential source for aviation radiation: Relativistic Electron Precipitation (REP) from the Van Allen radiation belts. Through interaction with air molecules, REP can produce intense X‐rays and these X‐rays can penetrate into the stratosphere and even the troposphere, leading to radiation doses therein. In this study, we report a lookup table of atmospheric radiation production by REP, and this lookup table can be directly used to convert space‐borne measurements of precipitation fluxes into aviation radiation. This study represents our first attempt toward better understanding of REP's role in the atmospheric high‐altitude radiation environment. Key Points: We report a lookup table of atmospheric radiation production between ground and low‐Earth‐orbit by monoenergetic precipitation electronsWe explain how this lookup table can be utilized for rapid specification of radiation production by arbitrary precipitation energy spectrumWe validate this lookup table by comparing with balloon measurements of X‐ray spectrum in stratosphere during radiation belt precipitation
- Subjects
ATMOSPHERIC radiation measurement; RADIATIVE forcing; RELATIVISTIC electrons; VAN Allen radiation belts; RADIATION belts
- Publication
Space Weather: The International Journal of Research & Applications, 2021, Vol 19, Issue 12, p1
- ISSN
1539-4956
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2021SW002735