Abstract
A systematic study is presented of the COS approximation as applied to the class of spinning charged particle detectors that measure solar and galactic cosmic-ray anisotropies. This study includes the derivation of: (1) the general COS approximation equations and their limitations for any harmonic component of the anisotropy, (2) the realistic errors for each harmonic component produced by the Poisson statistical fluctuations, and (3) the first order geometric smoothing effects caused by real charged particle telescopes. A computer simulation of the COS approximation is developed to test the reliability of the derived error relations and to examine effects associated with limited count rates. We find that not only anisotropy amplitude increased above its proper value at low count rates, but at any count rate an isotropic background anisotropy exists and is equal to ∼✓(3/C)±✓(1/C), where C is the total number of counts.
Published Version
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