Simulation of atmospheric cosmic-rays and their impacts based on pre-calculated databases, physical models and computational methods

The atmospheric cosmic-ray environment is composed of secondary particles produced when primary cosmic rays interact with the nucleus of atmospheric atoms. Modeling of atmospheric radiations is essential for investigating their impacts on human activities such as radiation risks in aviation or scientific fields such as cosmogenic dating. The nuclear transport codes are a common and accurate way to model the cosmic ray interaction in the atmosphere with minimal approximations. However, tracking all produced secondary particles in each event in the whole depth of the atmosphere and sampling many events to obtain the statistically meaningful results would be a computational challenge and disadvantageous from the point of view of time consumption. This paper presents a computational platform names ATMOS CORE based on pre-calculated databases coupled to physical models and computational methods. The fields of application concern the atmospheric cosmic-rays characterization as well as their effects on electronics systems, on the ambient dose for aircrews or the cosmogenic nuclide production for dating activities. Some comparisons between simulations and measurements are also presented and discussed.

Automated summary

The atmospheric cosmic-ray environment consists of secondary particles produced by primary cosmic rays interacting with atmospheric atoms. Modeling atmospheric radiations is crucial for studying their impacts on human activities and scientific fields. The computational platform ATMOS CORE is introduced, which is based on pre-calculated databases coupled with physical models and computational methods. Applications include characterizing atmospheric cosmic-rays and studying their effects on electronics systems, aircrews' exposure, and cosmogenic nuclide production for dating activities. Comparisons between simulations and measurements are also presented and discussed.