Computational Challenges and Opportunities of Simulating Cosmic Ray Showers at Global Scale

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of a GEANT4-based simulation program for cosmic ray showers in Earth's atmosphere, highlighting computational challenges and opportunities for large-scale simulations using diverse computing resources.

Contribution

It introduces a new simulation approach for cosmic ray showers at a global scale, leveraging advanced computing resources like XSEDE.

Findings

Enhanced understanding of geo-position-dependent cosmic ray shower profiles

Identification of computational challenges in large-scale simulations

Potential applications in space weather and security

Abstract

Galactic cosmic rays are the high-energy particles that stream into our solar system from distant corners of our Galaxy and some low energy particles are from the Sun which are associated with solar flares. The Earth atmosphere serves as an ideal detector for the high energy cosmic rays which interact with the air molecule nuclei causing propagation of extensive air showers. In recent years, there are growing interests in the applications of the cosmic ray measurements which range from the space/earth weather monitoring, homeland security based on the cosmic ray muon tomography, radiation effects on health via air travel, etc. A simulation program (based on the GEANT4 software package developed at CERN) has been developed at Georgia State University for studying the cosmic ray showers in atmosphere. The results of this simulation study will provide unprecedented knowledge of the geo-position-dependent cosmic ray shower profiles and significantly enhance the applicability of the cosmic ray applications. In the paper, we present the computational challenges and the opportunities for carrying out the cosmic ray shower simulations at the global scale using various computing resources including XSEDE.