Correlation between Variations in the Number of Neutrons in the Atmosphere and in the Intensities of the Atmospheric Ozone Lines

Abstract

We compare the data on the atmospheric radio emission in two ozone lines with resonance frequencies 96,228 and 101,736 MHz, obtained at the N. I. Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod in 1996–2001, with the corresponding results of measuring the number of neutrons in the atmosphere, obtained at the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation (Troitsk, Moscow region) using the NM-64 monitor. It is shown that variations in both the optical depth and the intensity ratio of these lines correlate with variations in the number of neutrons. The maximum observed correlation coefficients for the optical-depth decrements of the lines amount to 0.5–0.6, which is about a factor of 1.5 higher than the maximum correlation coefficient for their intensity ratio. We analyze the dependence of the correlation coefficients on the time shift between data series for the ozone line intensity and the number of neutrons in the atmosphere. It is shown that correlation between these data series almost vanishes for a time shift of about 200 h. We discuss the features of the data on the number of neutrons in the atmosphere and the possibility of the solar origin of neutrons.