WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE END-TO-END SIMULATION PACKAGE FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF COSMIC NEUTRINOS THAT IS APPLICABLE TO SUB-ORBITAL AND SPACE-BASED OBSERVATIONS. THIS DEVELOPMENT IS NEEDED TO ADEQUATELY QUANTIFY THE NEUTRINO POTENTIAL OF NASA'S CURRENT AND FUTURE EXPERIMENTAL EFFORTS IN COSMIC NEUTRINO DETECTION INCLUDING ANITA EVA EUSO-SPB2 AND THE POEMMA ASTROPHYSICS PROBE. THE GOAL IS TO PROVIDE AN EFFICIENT AND PRACTICAL COSMIC NEUTRINO EAS SIGNAL GENERATION MODEL THAT WILL PROVIDE A STANDARD TO GAUGE THE NEUTRINO MEASUREMENT PERFORMANCE OF SUB-ORBITAL AND SPACE-BASED EXPERIMENTS. SUB-ORBITAL AND SPACE-BASED MEASUREMENTS OF BOTH THE OPTICAL CHERENKOV AND RADIO EMISSION SIGNALS FROM UPWARD-MOVING AIR SHOWERS SOURCED FROM TAU NEUTRINO INTERACTIONS WITHIN AND BELOW THE LIMB OF THE EARTH HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO MEASURE THE ASTROPHYSICAL AND THE COSMOGENIC NEUTRINO FLUX ABOVE ONE PEV. WHILE THE EXISTENCE OF THE COSMOGENIC NEUTRINOS IS IMPLIED BY THE BARYONIC COMPONENT IN COSMIC RAYS THE DETECTION OF THESE NEUTRINOS HAS REMAINED ELUSIVE AND IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MEASUREMENTS IN ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS. THE DETAILS OF THE COSMOGENIC NEUTRINO SPECTRUM PROVIDE INVALUABLE INFORMATION TO THE COSMIC RAY ACCELERATION PROCESS SOURCE DISTRIBUTION AND SOURCE EVOLUTION. THUS NEUTRINOS ARE A CRITICAL AND UNIQUE COMPONENT OF MULTI-MESSENGER ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A SIMULATION PACKAGE THAT DETAILS ALL ASPECTS OF THE PROCESSES THAT LEAD TO THE AIR SHOWER SIGNALS BASED ON DIFFERENT NEUTRINO SPECTRA THAT COULD BE USED BY THE COMMUNITY AS A TOOL TO DETERMINE AN INSTRUMENT'S NEUTRINO SENSITIVITY. THIS INCLUDES THE MODELING THE NEUTRINO INTERACTIONS INSIDE THE EARTH PROPAGATING THE TAU LEPTONS INTO THE ATMOSPHERE MODELING THE DECAYS FORMING AIR SHOWERS FROM THE DECAY PRODUCTS GENERATING THE AIR FLUORESCENCE CHERENKOV AND RADIO SIGNALS AND THE PROPAGATION THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE. THE ATMOSPHERIC TRANSMISSION AND SCATTERING EFFECTS WILL BE MODELED IN DETAIL INCLUDING CONSIDERATION OF THE UNCERTAINTIES SUCH AS THOSE DUE TO PROPAGATION THROUGH AEROSOLS IN THE ATMOSPHERE FOR THE OPTICAL SIGNAL AND DUE TO PROPAGATION THROUGH THE IONOSPHERE FOR THE RADIO SIGNAL. RELEVANT ATMOSPHERIC BACKGROUNDS SUCH AS AIR GLOW WILL ALSO BE MODELED. THE MODELING WILL ALSO BE EASILY ADAPTABLE FOR SIMULATING THE DETECTABLE SIGNALS FROM UHECR AND UHE NEUTRINO AIR SHOWERS. THIS WILL ALLOW FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE POTENTIAL BACKGROUNDS ASSOCIATED WITH THE UHECR AIR SHOWER SIGNALS JUST OVER THE EARTH'S LIMB AND THE REFLECTION OFF OF CLOUDS AND THE GROUND OF THE DOWNWARD UHECR AIR SHOWER SIGNALS. THE MODELING WILL BE PERFORMED IN SUCH A WAY TO EASILY BE USED TO GENERATE THE FLUORESCENCE CHERENKOV AND RADIO SIGNALS DELIVERED TO A SPECIFIC ALTITUDE FOR A GIVEN INSTRUMENTAL FIELD-OF-VIEW. THE RESULTS OF THIS MODELING EFFORT WILL ALLOW FOR THE CALCULATION OF THE SKY COVERAGE AND THE POINTING REQUIREMENTS FOR TARGET OF OPPORTUNITY FOLLOWUP OBSERVATIONS TO EXTREMELY ENERGETIC TRANSIENT EVENTS. ADDITIONALLY THE FRAMEWORK WILL ALLOW FOR THE INCLUSION OF DIFFERENT NEUTRINO INTERACTION CROSS-SECTIONS TO ALLOW FOR THE MODELING OF NON-STANDARD PHYSICAL PROCESSES.
$131,380FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT