Speaker
Dr
Mark Looper
(The Aerospace Corporation)
Description
Geant4 is a vital tool for understanding and calibrating the response of space-borne radiation sensors at The Aerospace Corporation. In the year since the last Geant4 Space Users' Workshop, we have taken advantage of new physics lists that include nuclear interactions of heavy ion projectiles on heavy ion targets to improve our understanding of the response of the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter as it measures the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) environment. We have also used these improvements in Geant4 physics to model the production of secondary particles under GCR bombardment of the lunar surface, which are also measured by CRaTER, and we plan to perform a similar calculation for GCR secondaries produced by Earth's atmosphere, the neutrons among which create the protons trapped in the Inner Van Allen Belt as they decay in flight. Aboard the Van Allen Probes, we are in the process of modeling the detailed response of the Magnetic Electron/Ion Spectrometer (MagEIS) sensor heads, starting with the high-energy electron head that nominally responds to electrons of a few MeV but that also has background from higher-energy electrons and penetrating protons. We are also continuing to refine our understanding of the Relativistic Proton Spectrometer to the highest-energy protons in the magnetosphere and to GCRs, modifying our simulations to better reproduce the observations.
Summary
A discussion of recent work using Geant4 at The Aerospace Corporation to understand the response of space radiation sensors and the production of secondary particles from cosmic ray impacts on planetary targets.
Primary author
Dr
Mark Looper
(The Aerospace Corporation)
Co-authors
Dr
J. Bernard Blake
(The Aerospace Corporation)
Dr
Joseph Mazur
(The Aerospace Corporation)
Dr
Paul O'Brien
(The Aerospace Corporation)
