Research Article

Ready functions for calculating the Martian radiation environment

¹ Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics (IEAP), University of Kiel, Leibnitzstr. 11, 24118 Kiel, Germany
² School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, PR China
³ CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, Hefei, PR China
⁴ University of Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth, UK
⁵ German Aerospace Center, Linder Hohe, 51147 Koln, Cologne, Germany

^* Corresponding author: astro.jingnan@gmail.com

Received: 14 September 2018
Accepted: 22 January 2019

Abstract

It is extremely important to understand and model the Martian radiation environment in preparation for future human missions to Mars, especially during extreme and elevated conditions such as an intense solar energetic particle (SEP) event. Such events may enhance the radiation level drastically and should be forecasted as soon as possible to prevent severe damage to humans and equipment. Besides, the omnipresent galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) also contribute significantly to the radiation in space and on the surface of Mars and may cause long-term damages to current and future missions. Based on GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations with the Martian atmospheric and regolith environment setup, we have calculated and obtained some ready-to-go functions which can be used to quickly convert any given SEP or GCR proton/helium ion spectra to the radiation dose on the surface of Mars and also at different depth of the atmosphere. We implement these functions to the RADMAREE tool under the Europlanet project which can be easily accessed by the public.