Solar energetic particles and galactic cosmic rays over millions of years as inferred from data on cosmogenic $^{26}$Al in lunar samples

TL;DR

This study uses lunar samples to reconstruct the long-term energy spectrum of solar and galactic cosmic rays over millions of years, providing new insights into solar activity and radiation hazards for space missions.

Contribution

A novel method based on precise modeling of cosmogenic $^{26}$Al in lunar rocks to directly reconstruct the mean energy spectrum of cosmic rays over million-year timescales.

Findings

Reconstructed solar energetic particle spectrum aligns with recent decades.

Estimated no extreme solar events exceeding certain fluence levels over million-year timescales.

Solar energetic particle flux appears independent of solar activity levels.

Abstract

Aims. Lunar soil and rocks are not protected by a magnetic field or an atmosphere and are continuously irradiated by energetic particles that can produce cosmogenic radioisotopes directly inside rocks at different depths depending on the particle's energy. This allows the mean fluxes of solar and galactic cosmic rays to be assessed on the very long timescales of millions of years. Methods. Here we show that lunar rocks can serve as a very good particle integral spectrometer in the energy range 20-80 MeV. We have developed a new method based on precise modeling, that is applied to measurements of $^{26}$Al (half-life ~0.7 megayears) in lunar samples from the Apollo mission, and present the first direct reconstruction (i.e., without any a priori assumptions) of the mean energy spectrum of solar and galactic energetic particles over a million of years. Results. We show that the reconstructed spectrum of solar energetic particles is totally consistent with that over the last decades, despite the very different levels of solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays ($\phi=496\pm 40$ MV over a million years versus $\phi= 660\pm 20$ MV for the modern epoch). We also estimated the occurrence probability of extreme solar events and argue that no events with the F(>30 MeV) fluence exceeding $5*10^{10}$ and $10^{11}$ cm$^2$ are expected on timescales of a thousand and million years, respectively. Conclusions. We conclude that the mean flux of solar energetic particles hardly depends on the level of solar activity, in contrast to the solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays. This puts new observational constraints on solar physics and becomes important for assessing radiation hazards for the planned space missions.