Speaker
Description
Cosmic rays continuously bombard the Earth’s atmosphere and form the main source of its ionization of the lower and middle atmosphere. This cosmic-ray-induced ionisation (CRII) leads to significant chemical and physical effects in the atmosphere. Since the ionization level is very difficult to measure directly, it is crucially important to model CRII realistically and reliably. One of the most commonly used atmospheric ionisation models is CRAC:CRII (Cosmic-Ray Atmospheric Cascade: application to CRII) developed by our team in 2004 – 2006 (version 1) and significantly improved in 2010 – 2011 (version 2). Here we present a significantly revisited CRAC:CRII model version 3 with improved modelling of the upper atmosphere and denser energy and height grids. The model is a combination of the direct analytical approach in the upper (thin-target) atmosphere and a full 3D Monte-Carlo simulation of the cosmic-ray-induced atmospheric cascade for the lower and middle atmosphere. The revisited model significantly improves the accuracy of CRII computations for the middle-upper atmosphere and lower-energy cosmic rays. This is particularly important for studies of the atmospheric effects of solar particle storms.
