Atmospheric ionization induced by precipitating electrons: Comparison of CRAC:EPII model with a parametrization model

Results of a comparison of a new model CRAC:EPII (Cosmic Ray Atmospheric Cascade: Electron Precipitation Induced Ionization) with a commonly used parametric model of atmospheric ionization is presented. The CRAC:EPII is based on a Monte Carlo simulation of precipitating electrons propagation and interaction with matter in the Earth's atmosphere. It explicitly considers energy deposit: ionization, pair production, Compton scattering, generation of Bremsstrahlung high energy photons, photo-ionization and annihilation of positrons, multiple scattering as physical processes accordingly. Propagation of precipitating electrons and their interactions with air is simulated with the GEANT4 simulation tool PLANETOCOSMICS code using NRLMSISE-00 atmospheric model. Ionization yields are computed and compared with a parametrization model for different energies of incident precipitating energetic electrons, using simulated fluxes of mono-energetic particles. A good agreement between the two models is achieved in the mesosphere but the contribution of Bremsstrahlung in the stratosphere, which is not accounted for in the parametric models, is found significant. As an example, we calculated profiles of the ion production rates in the middle and upper atmosphere (below 100 km) on the basis of balloon-born measured spectra of precipitating electrons for 30-October-2002 and 07-January-2004.