Verification of Estimated Cosmic Neutron Intensities Using a Portable Neutron Monitoring System in Antarctica

• Published in: Applied Sciences
• Main Authors: Hiroshi Yasuda, Naoyuki Kurita, Kazuaki Yajima
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2023
• Subjects: Antarctica; cosmic rays; atmosphere; radiation detector; neutron measurement; portable monitoring system; Technology; T; Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General); TA1-2040; Biology (General); QH301-705.5; Physics; QC1-999; Chemistry; QD1-999; East Antarctica; Parma; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/app13053297; https://doaj.org/article/4413e58e13484715a1b1424cee885ee6

Many ongoing studies for predicting the production rates of cosmogenic nuclides, forecasting changes of atmospheric compositions and climate, assessing the cosmic-radiation exposure of aircraft crew, and the effects on precise electronic devices use numerical models that estimate cosmic-radiation intensities in the atmosphere. Periodic verifications of those models are desirable to be performed for assuring the reliability of the study outcomes. Here, we investigated an application of a portable neutron-monitoring system composed of an extended-energy-range neutron monitor and a small data logger for monitoring of cosmic-neutron intensities in a polar region. As a result of measurements in the east Antarctica region covering a wide range of altitudes (from 30 m to 3762 m) and comparisons with the model calculations performed with an analytical model based on comprehensive Monte Carlo simulations (PARMA), it was demonstrated that the portable neutron-monitoring system could be effectively applied for periodic verification of cosmic-neutron intensities that would improve the reliability of related studies.