Verification of Estimated Cosmic Neutron Intensities Using a Portable Neutron Monitoring System in Antarctica

Featured Application A portable neutron-monitoring system can be effectively applied to verification of the models used for estimating cosmic radiation intensities over a wide range of altitudes in a harsh environment such as in Antarctica. Many ongoing studies for predicting the production rates of cosmogenic nuclides, forecasting changes of atmospheric compositions and climate, assessing the cosmic-radiation exposure of aircraft crew, and the effects on precise electronic devices use numerical models that estimate cosmic-radiation intensities in the atmosphere. Periodic verifications of those models are desirable to be performed for assuring the reliability of the study outcomes. Here, we investigated an application of a portable neutron-monitoring system composed of an extended-energy-range neutron monitor and a small data logger for monitoring of cosmic-neutron intensities in a polar region. As a result of measurements in the east Antarctica region covering a wide range of altitudes (from 30 m to 3762 m) and comparisons with the model calculations performed with an analytical model based on comprehensive Monte Carlo simulations (PARMA), it was demonstrated that the portable neutron-monitoring system could be effectively applied for periodic verification of cosmic-neutron intensities that would improve the reliability of related studies.