Simulation and Radiation Measurements from Three Stratospheric Balloon Flights

Atmospheric showers, produced by radiation from space that hit the higher layers of the atmosphere, propagate through it and produce effects on both electronic systems and living beings. They have been analyzed in depth at aeronautical heights, for their impacts on airplanes, passengers and crews, but now they are becoming more important at stratospheric altitudes, where new scientific and communications missions operate. This abstract summarizes the measurements taken by three radiation monitors flying through the Stratosphere on board three scientific balloons. We also developed a series of simulations with FLUKA to better understand the interaction of the radiation with the monitor and to determine the impact of the monitor shielding on the detection capabilities. Further work will be needed to discriminate types of particles and energy levels, and to study in detail such measurements. But we can show now the fluxes of ionizing particles measured by our monitors while flying over Sweden, Canada and Spain from the ground to altitudes of about 35 km. Thanks to the simulations performed it is possible to know the minimum necessary energy for the incoming particle to go through the external thermal insulation box of the monitor and reach its electronic to be measured.