Global Maps of Galactic Cosmic Ray Induced Ionization at Different Altitudes in Planetary Atmosphere

Abstract

High-energy precipitating particles of cosmic origin viz. cosmic ray protons of heavier nuclei of galactic and/or solar origin induce complicated nuclear electromagnetic-lepton cascades in the Earth’s atmosphere, eventually leading to an ionization of the ambient air. The induced by cosmic rays atmospheric ionization is related to possible effect of precipitating particles on atmospheric chemistry and physics. In this work, using a combination of state of the art 3-D full target models we computed as realistically as possible, explicitly considering the contribution of heavy ions, the ion production at eight altitudes in the Earth’s atmosphere, scilicet: 25 g/cm2 (≈ 45 km asl), 50 g/cm2 (≈ 35 km asl)   Fig. 1, 100 g/cm2 (≈ 24.5 km asl), 150 g/cm2 (≈ 19.5 km asl)   Fig. 2, 200 g/cm2 (≈ 16 km asl), 250 g/cm2 (≈ 13.5 km asl) Fig. 3, 300 g/cm2 (≈ 11.5 km asl), 400 g/cm2 (≈ 8.5 km asl)   Fig. 4. This includes altitudes from the upper troposphere to the stratosphere. Here we provided global maps with resolution of 1◦×1◦ of the computed ion production rates. Hence, the presented here results give a good basis for further studies related to the space weather and the possible impact of precipitating highenergy particles of galactic and/or solar origin on the atmospheric chemistry and physics.