Atmospheric proton and helium fluxes compared to AIRES simulation results

Air shower simulation programs are important tools for estimating distributions of particles of different kinds, and that can be measured experimentally. The region of interest spans many orders of magnitude in primary energy, from atmospheric fluxes measured in balloon–borne experiments up to the highest energy cosmic rays detected at the Auger Observatory, for example. The comparison of observed rates of atmospheric neutrino interactions with calculated ones also requires accurate air shower simulations. In this paper we compare the CAPRICE98 results on atmospheric fluxes of protons and alpha particles with results from the AIRES simulation program. The energy range depends on the residual atmosphere and on the kind of particle. Detailed measurements of atmospheric fluxes allow fine–tuning of the models used in the air shower simulations.