More than 70% of the energy from a high-altitude nuclear explosion is transmitted via X-ray radiation, which serves as the primary source of atmospheric ionization. When the detonation altitude of a high-altitude nuclear explosion exceeds 80 km, the absorption of X rays by air weakens. Consequently, X rays can propagate over a wide range and gradually dissipate their energy through the ionization of the atmosphere. The atmospheric ionization effect of X rays causes drastic fluctuations in the electron density within the Earth’s ionosphere. This, in turn, leads to significant changes in the signals of electromagnetic waves as they pass through the ionosphere, thereby exerting adverse impacts on systems such as satellites, radars, and communications. However, there are currently still problems such as slow calculation speed and incomplete model considerations in the calculation of the atmospheric ionization effect caused by high-altitude X rays.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new engineering method for calculating the X-ray atmospheric ionization process in the high-altitude rarefied atmosphere.

The model accounts for the transport of high-energy electrons (generated by the interaction between X rays and the atmosphere) in the geomagnetic field as well as the atmospheric ionization issue, and it performs an averaging process on the microscopic interaction processes.

Compared with traditional ray energy deposition models, it improves the calculation accuracy.

This model was used to analyze the influence laws of explosion altitude, latitude, and yield on the ionization density distribution. The results show that: Due to the influence of high-energy electron transport, the symmetry of the ionization density distribution is lost; The ionization density distribution is significantly enhanced in the direction passing through the explosion center and perpendicular to the magnetic field lines; The higher the explosion altitude, the greater the ionization density at high-altitude positions, while the influence caused by high-energy electron transport becomes smaller in high-altitude regions, and the ionization density at low-altitude positions decreases; The yield has a significant impact on the numerical value of the ionization density, but has a relatively small impact on the relative distribution of the ionization density.