The induced Ionization by Solar Cosmic Rays in the Earth Atmosphere-CORSIKA code simulations

In this work we propose physical model for estimation of solar cosmic ray induced ionization in the upper atmosphere of the Earth on the basis of recent simulations. The contribution of the electromagnetic, muon and hadronic components to total ionization is computed. Atmospheric cascade processes are simulated using CORSIKA code. The Fluka and QGSJET hadronic interaction subroutines are applied. The simulations are carried out according US Standard Atmosphere, taking into account Earth curvature. The atmosphere is divided in 1036 layers per 1 g/cm2, allowing good precision for longitudinal energy deposit estimation, respectively ion pair production. Different energies of primary solar protons are considered. The energy deposit of different cascade components is obtained. As a result the ionization yield function Y is computed. This permitted to obtain explicitly the profiles of ion production rates q(h) by solar cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere (authors)