New Data and Modelling for Single Event Effects in the Stratospheric Radiation Environment

Hands, A.; Lei, F.; Ryden, Keith; Dyer, C. S.; Underwood, Craig; Mertens, C. J.

doi:10.1109/tns.2016.2612000

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Figure 20 shows primary (peak flux) spectra for the historical GLEs compared to a GCR background spectrum. Four of the peak flux spectra are derived from the total fluence spectra of Allan Tylka (Tylka, 2008) and are embedded in the MAIRE model (Hands et al, 2017), the remaining two are based on fits of the GLE71 and GLE72 by Alexander Mishev (Mishev et al, 2014;Mishev & Usoskin, 2018), excluding the pitch angle distribution factor. In all cases the GLE spectra are far softer than the GCR spectrum, though there is considerable variation in spectral shape between the GLEs.…”

Section: Atmospheric Environment Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All spectra plotted in Figure 20 and Figure 21 were used as inputs to the Model for Atmospheric Ionising Radiation Effects (MAIRE), which uses Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations to calculate the atmospheric radiation environment at all geographic coordinates and altitudes up to 20 km (Hands et al, 2017). MAIRE is capable of calculating differential and integral spectra for all major particle species, however for this task we only require neutron flux.…”

Section: Atmospheric Environment Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Detecting Ground Level Enhancements Using Soil Moisture Sensor Networks

et al. 2021

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Ground level enhancements (GLEs) are space weather events that pose a potential hazard to the aviation environment through single event effects (SEE) in avionics and increased dose to passengers and crew. The existing ground level neutron monitoring network provides continuous and well-characterised measurements of the radiation environment. However, there are only a few dozen active stations worldwide, and there hasn't been a UK-based station for several decades. Much smaller neutron detectors are increasingly deployed throughout the world with the purpose of using secondary neutrons from cosmic rays to monitor local soil moisture conditions (COSMOS). Space weather signals from ground level enhancements (GLEs) and Forbush decreases have been identified in COSMOS data. Monte Carlo simulations of atmospheric radiation propagation show that a single COSMOS detector is sufficient to detect the signal of a medium-strength (10-100% increase above background) ground level enhancement (GLE) at high statistical significance, including at fine temporal resolution. Use of fine temporal resolution would also provide a capability to detect Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes (via secondary neutrons) which are produced by certain lightning discharges and which can provide a hazard to aircraft, particularly in tropical regions. We also show how the COSMOS-UK detector network could be used to provide warnings at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) "Moderate" and "Severe" dose rate thresholds at aviation altitudes, and how multiple-detector hubs situated at strategic UK locations could detect a small GLE at high statistical significance and infer crucial information on the nature of the primary spectrum.

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Section: Atmospheric Environment Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Atmospheric Environment Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting Ground Level Enhancements Using Soil Moisture Sensor Networks

et al. 2021

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“…Along with research for hardware that would function at ground level there is a huge corpus of research related to hardware that needs to function from the stratosphere to outer space. Indeed, many papers [9], [12], [22] especially in the field of particle physics and radiation protection for electronic devices, have shown that it is quite common for such errors to appear. Research efforts have been focused on observing/producing such errors at ground level with the help of radioactive sources.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deja-Vu: A Glimpse on Radioactive Soft-Error Consequences on Classical and Quantum Computations

Nappa,

Hobbs,

Lanzi

2021

Preprint

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What do Apple, the FBI and a Belgian politician have in common? In 2003, in Belgium there was an election using electronic voting machines. Mysteriously one candidate summed an excess of 4096 votes. An accurate analysis led to the official explanation that a spontaneous creation of a bit in position 13 of the memory of the computer attributed 4096 extra votes to one candidate. One of the most credited answers to this event is attributed to cosmic rays i.e.(gamma), which can filter through the atmosphere. Indeed, SEUs (single event upsets) such as bit-flips are frequent faults especially in outer space, where ionizing radiations are very frequent. For this reason many space capable devices mount very expensive and technically advanced memories, to reduce risks of malfunction, breakage, or exploit. On the other hand, at ground level, consumer devices aren't equipped with such memories for economic and statistical reasons. Indeed, research in the area shows that cosmic, highenergy rays filter inside the atmosphere on a daily basis. But when they hit our computers mostly they reach non-allocated space and systems do not notice their effects. There are cases though, with classical computers, like forensic investigations, or system recovery where such soft-errors may be helpful to gain root privileges and recover data. In this paper we show preliminary results of using radioactive sources as a mean to generate bit-flips and exploit classical electronic computation devices. We used low radioactive emissions generated by Cobalt and Cesium and obtained bit-flips which made the program under attack crash. We also provide the first overview of the consequences of SEUs in quantum computers which are today used in production for protein folding optimization, showing potential impactful consequences. To the best of our knowledge we are the first to leverage SEUs for exploitation purposes which could be of great impact on classical and quantum computers.

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“…Computations of these can be made for point locations or along input aircraft routes. A fuller description of the MAIRE codes and validations with balloon data are given in reference [27].…”

Section: The 23 February 1956 Environment and Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme Atmospheric Radiation Environments and Single Event Effects

Dyer

Hands

Ryden

et al. 2018

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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Abstract-Data from ground-level radiation monitors and cosmogenic nuclides are combined to a give a probability distribution for severe radiation events related to the well quantified event of 23 February 1956. Particle fluxes, single event effects rates and dose rates are calculated for groundlevel and aerospace systems. The event of February 1956 would provide a challenge to air safety while more extreme events seen in historical records would challenge safety-critical ground systems. A new space weather hazard scale based on this event could be used to give rapid assessment of the radiation hazard using high latitude neutron monitor data.

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New Data and Modelling for Single Event Effects in the Stratospheric Radiation Environment

Cited by 12 publications

References 25 publications

Detecting Ground Level Enhancements Using Soil Moisture Sensor Networks

Detecting Ground Level Enhancements Using Soil Moisture Sensor Networks

Deja-Vu: A Glimpse on Radioactive Soft-Error Consequences on Classical and Quantum Computations

Extreme Atmospheric Radiation Environments and Single Event Effects

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