Variability of the energetic particle population in response to magnetospheric activity

Penetrating radiation by energetic particles has a significant effect on the human technology in the altitude range above that used by the commercial aviation in the troposphere. In space, exposure to energetic particles often leads to malfunctions and unexpected failures of electronics onboard manned and unmanned spacecraft and poses a severe health risk for astronauts. Ionizing radiation also has a global impact on Earth' upper atmosphere producing scintillations which affect the navigation systems, and triggering numerous electrochemical reactions resulted in a depletion of the atmospheric ozone.

The work presented here is focused on characterizing variability of the energetic GCR and SEP protons as well as GCR heavy ions during an active time in Earth' magnetosphere. We will discuss the variability of the cutoff rigidity and changes in the energy spectrum of the protons as they propagate to LEO as well as that of the penetration depth of the heavy ions.