Refine
Has Fulltext
- no (2)
Document Type
- Article (2)
Language
- English (2)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (2)
Keywords
- GEANT4 modeling (1)
- MATROSHKA-R (1)
- Radiation dose calculation (1)
- Radiation on the ISS (1)
- Radiation protection (1)
- Space radiation (1)
Institute
Since more than 15 years, the Cluster mission passes through Earth's radiation belts at least once every 2 days for several hours, measuring the electron intensity at energies from 30 to 400 keV. These data have previously been considered not usable due to contamination caused by penetrating energetic particles (protons at >100 keV and electrons at >400 keV). In this study, we assess the level of distortion of energetic electron spectra from the Research with Adaptive Particle Imaging Detector (RAPID)/Imaging Electron Spectrometer (IES) detector, determining the efficiency of its shielding. We base our assessment on the analysis of experimental data and a radiation transport code (Geant4). In simulations, we use the incident particle energy distribution of the AE9/AP9 radiation belt models. We identify the Roederer L values, L⋆, and energy channels that should be used with caution: at 3≤L⋆≤4, all energy channels (40–400 keV) are contaminated by protons (≃230 to 630 keV and >600 MeV); at L⋆≃1 and 4–6, the energy channels at 95–400 keV are contaminated by high-energy electrons (>400 keV). Comparison of the data with electron and proton observations from RBSP/MagEIS indicates that the subtraction of proton fluxes at energies ≃ 230–630 keV from the IES electron data adequately removes the proton contamination. We demonstrate the usefulness of the corrected data for scientific applications.
Space radiation is one of the main concerns for human space flights. The prediction of the radiation dose for the actual spacecraft geometry is very important for the planning of long-duration missions. We present a numerical method for the fast calculation of the radiation dose rate during a space flight. We demonstrate its application for dose calculations during the first and the second sessions of the MATROSHKA-R space experiment with a spherical tissue-equivalent phantom. The main advantage of the method is the short simulation time, so it can be applied for urgent radiation dose calculations for low-Earth orbit space missions. The method uses depth-dose curve and shield-and-composition distribution functions to calculate a radiation dose at the point of interest. The spacecraft geometry is processed into a shield-and-composition distribution function using a ray-tracing method. Depth-dose curves are calculated using the GEANT4 Monte-Carlo code (version 10.00.P02) for a double-layer aluminum-water shielding. Aluminum-water shielding is a good approximation of the real geometry, as water is a good equivalent for biological tissues, and aluminum is the major material of spacecraft bodies.