Ground Albedo Neutron Impacts to Seasonal Variations of Cosmic-Ray-Induced Neutron in Medium Geomagnetic Latitude and Antarctica: Impacts on Soft Error Rate

G. Hubert (1)

1 ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab [Toulouse]

This paper investigates the impact of ground albedo neutrons in the terrestrial radiation field and their seasonal variations. A modeling methodology is proposed, it is based on ATMORAD (atmospheric shower modeling) and GEANT4 simulations taking into account the soil characteristics and hydrogen content. This method was validated thanks to neutron measurements performed in two high altitude stations located in medium geomagnetic latitude and Antarctica (Pic-du-Midi and Concordia, respectively). Thus, the chemical rock composition, the density, the water content and the snow pack impacts to neutron spectrum were investigated. Simulated and measured spectra were compared. Analyses show that variations are dominant in the thermal domain (i.e. En <0.5 eV) and lesser degree in epithermal and evaporation domains (i.e. 0.5 eV < En <0.1 MeV and 0.1 MeV < En <20 MeV, respectively). The last part investigates the impact induced by the evaporation neutron contribution to Single Event Rate (more impacted by the ground albedo neutron). Results show that evaporation neutrons contribution to the total SER should be assessed for high-sensitive technologies.

Mots clés: COSMIC-RAY INDUCED NEUTRONS; GROUND ALBEDO NEUTRON; SEASONAL VARIATIONS; GEANT4; HIGH-ALTITUDE STATIONS

Domaines: Physique de l'espace [physics.space-ph]

G. Hubert. Ground Albedo Neutron Impacts to Seasonal Variations of Cosmic-Ray-Induced Neutron in Medium Geomagnetic Latitude and Antarctica: Impacts on Soft Error Rate. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2017, 64 (1), pp.622-629. ⟨10.1109/TNS.2016.2614540⟩. ⟨hal-01487917⟩