Cosmic ray modulation at low/high cut off rigidity

Abstract

The various observed harmonics of the cosmic ray variation may be understood on a unified basis if the free space cosmic ray anisotropy is non-sinusoidal in form. The major objective of this paper is to study the first three harmonics of cosmic ray intensity on geo-magnetically quiet days over the period 1965-1990 for Deep River, Goose Bay and Tokyo neutron monitoring stations. The amplitude of first harmonic remains high for Deep River having low cutoff rigidity as compared to Tokyo neutron monitor having high cutoff rigidity on quiet days. The diurnal ampli- tude significantly decreases in 1987 at Deep River and in 1986 at Tokyo during solar activity minimum years. The diurnal time of maximum significantly shifts to an earlier time as compared to the corotational direction at both the stations having different cutoff rigidities. The time of maximum for first harmonic significantly shifts towards later hours and for second harmonic it shifts towards earlier hours at low cutoff rigidity station i.e. Deep River as com- pared to the high cut off rigidity station i.e. Tokyo on quiet days. The amplitude of second/third harmonics shows a good positive correlation with solar wind velocity, while the others (i.e. amplitude and phase) have no significant cor- relation on quiet days. The solar wind velocity significantly remains in the range 350 to 425 km/s i.e. being nearly average on quiet days. The amplitude and direction of the anisotropy on quiet days are weakly dependent on high- speed solar wind streams for these neutron monitoring stations of low and high cutoff rigidity threshold..