Radiation environment in the region of thunderstorm neutrons generation

There exist a number of experimental data favoring the idea of the connection between thunderstorm activity and rises of neutron count rate, registered in on-ground [1,2] as well as space experiments [3]. Recent investigations in this area showed that the observation of thunderstorm neutrons onboard low-orbiting satellites is in principal possible [4]. The current view on the problem of thunderstorm neutrons origin assumes their generation in photonuclear reactions of the TGF radiation and atmosphere components [5]. Such neutron radiation has almost no effect on the dosimetric environment in low orbits due to dispersion in the atmosphere [6]. However it could be of considerable importance in the region of the neutrons generation (on altitudes of 10 - 20 km). The indicated values match altitudes of aviation flights so that, taking into account high penetration power of neutron radiation, one may expect some connected hazard. In the present study we perform a numerical simulation of the thunderstorm neutron radiation near the generation area. The modeling includes generation of the neutrons from TGF and further propagation with account of interaction with background nuclei. On the basis of modeling results we obtain estimates of the absorbed dose for various configurations and altitudes of the neutrons source.