Fifty years of progress in geomagnetic cutoff rigidity determinations

Abstract

This paper is a review of the progress made in geomagnetic cutoff rigidity calculations over the past 50 years. Determinations of cosmic ray trajectories, and hence cutoff rigidities, using digital computers began in 1956 and progressed slowly until 1962 when McCracken developed an efficient computer program to determine cosmic ray trajectories in a high degree simulation of the geomagnetic field. The application of this cosmic ray trajectory technique was limited by the available computer power. As computers became faster it was possible to determine vertical cutoff rigidity values for cosmic ray stations and coarse world grids; however, the computational effort required was formidable for the computers of the 1960s. Since most cosmic ray experiments were conducted on the surface of the Earth, the vertical cutoff rigidity was adopted as a standard reference value. The effective cutoff value derived from trajectory calculations appeared to be adequate for ordering cosmic ray data from latitude surveys. As the geomagnetic field evolution became more apparent, it was found necessary to update the world grid of cutoff rigidity values using more accurate descriptions of the geomagnetic field. In the 1970s and 1980s it became possible to do experimental verification of the accuracy of these cosmic ray cutoff determinations and also to design experiments based on these cutoff rigidity calculations. The extensive trajectory calculations done in conjunction with the HEAO-3 satellite and a comparison between these experimental measurements and the trajectory calculations verified the Störmer theory prediction regarding angular cutoff variations and also confirmed that the structure of the first order penumbra is very stable and could be used for isotope separation. Contemporary work in improving cutoff rigidities seems to be concentrating on utilizing improved magnetospheric models in an effort to determine more accurate geomagnetic cutoff values. When using geomagnetic cutoff rigidity values to predict the cosmic radiation access to spacecraft for a satisfactory computation of the radiation dose, both the particle transmission though the cosmic ray penumbra and angular cutoffs must be considered.