Ionization in the atmosphere, comparison between measurements and simulations

Sloan, T.; Bazilevskaya, G. A.; Makhmutov, V. S.; Stozhkov, Y. I.; Svirzhevskaya, A. K.; Svirzhevsky, N. S.

doi:doi:10.5194/astra-7-29-2011

Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 7, 29-33, 2011
www.astrophys-space-sci-trans.net/7/29/2011/
doi:10.5194/astra-7-29-2011
© Author(s) 2011. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Volume 7, issue 1

28 Jan 2011

Ionization in the atmosphere, comparison between measurements and simulations
T. Sloan¹, G. A. Bazilevskaya², V. S. Makhmutov², Y. I. Stozhkov², A. K. Svirzhevskaya², and N. S. Svirzhevsky²
¹University of Lancaster, UK
²Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia

Received: 05 Oct 2010 – Revised: 30 Nov 2010 – Accepted: 01 Dec 2010 – Published: 28 Jan 2011

Abstract. A survey of the data on measured particle fluxes and the rate of ionization in the atmosphere is presented. Measurements as a function of altitude, time and cut-off rigidity are compared with simulations of particle production from cosmic rays. The simulations generally give a reasonable representation of the data. However, some discrepancies are found. The solar modulation of the particle fluxes is measured and found to be a factor 2.7 ± 0.8 greater than that observed for muons alone near sea level.

Citation: Sloan, T., Bazilevskaya, G. A., Makhmutov, V. S., Stozhkov, Y. I., Svirzhevskaya, A. K., and Svirzhevsky, N. S.: Ionization in the atmosphere, comparison between measurements and simulations, Astrophys. Space Sci. Trans., 7, 29-33, doi:10.5194/astra-7-29-2011, 2011.

Astrophysics and Space Sciences Transactions

An Open Access Journal of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Extraterrestrische Forschung e.V.