Using Geant4 to Model Ground Level Enhancements
By David
The Earth is continuously exposed to a stream of high-energy particles originating from extraterrestrial space. Such particles come in various forms, including galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) traveling from distant galaxies or solar energetic particles (SEPs) exuding from the Sun. Although Earth's magnetosphere acts as a shield for much of this radiation, interactions between cosmic particles and our atmosphere result in secondary particles, causing adverse health effects particularly prominent to those at an aviation altitude. Specifically, intense solar particle events known as ground level enhancements (GLEs) can produce photons with energies exceeding 200 MeV. In order to effectively assess the health risk to those at altitudes susceptible to secondary radiation, computational analysis can be conducted using the Geant4 toolkit, which utilizes Monte Carlo radiation transport codes to simulate the passage of particles through matter. In this study, we use this toolkit to develop a software to measure the radiation dosimetry due to GLEs at aviation altitudes.