Ready functions for calculating the Martian radiation environment

Jingnan Guo, Robert Wimmer-Schweingruber, Manuel Grande, Zoe Lee-Payne, Daniel Matthia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)
225 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

It is extremely important to understand and model the Martian radiation environment in preparation for future human missions to Mars, especially during extreme and elevated conditions such as an intense solar energetic particle (SEP) event. Such events may enhance the radiation level drastically and should be forecasted as soon as possible to prevent severe damage to humans and equipment. Besides, the omnipresent galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) also contribute significantly to the radiation in space and on the surface of Mars and may cause long-term damages to current and future missions. Based on
GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations with the Martian atmospheric and regolith environment setup, we have
calculated and obtained some ready-to-go functions which can be used to quickly convert any given SEP or
GCR proton/helium ion spectra to the radiation dose on the surface of Mars and also at different depth of
the atmosphere. We implement these functions to the RADMAREE tool under the Europlanet project
which can be easily accessed by the public.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberA7
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Space Weather and Space Climate
Volume9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Feb 2019

Keywords

  • Mars
  • radiation
  • space weather
  • radiation environment
  • energetic particles
  • planets
  • Energetic particle
  • Radiation environment
  • Planets
  • Space weather

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