Abstract
Muon detectors and neutron monitors were recently installed at Syowa Station, in the Antarctic, to observe different types of secondary particles resulting from cosmic ray interactions simultaneously from the same location. Continuing observations will give new insight into the response of muon detectors to atmospheric and geomagnetic effects. Operation began in February, 2018 and the system has been stable with a duty-cycle exceeding 94%. Muon data shows a clear seasonal variation, which is expected from the atmospheric temperature effect. We verified successful operation by showing that the muon and neutron data are consistent with those from other locations by comparing intensity variations during a space weather event. We have established a web page to make real time data available with interactive graphics (http://polaris.nipr.ac.jp/cosmicrays/).
Highlights
Solar cycle 24 was the weakest of those in the space age and the current solar minimum is expected to show very weak solar activity, similar to the deep solar minimum in 2009 (Smith et al, 2014; https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml)
By analyzing the Global Muon Detector Network (GMDN) data recorded during this event, we found that a significant increase of the galactic cosmic rays (GCR) density exceeding the unmodulated level before the shock was observed for 6 h between 04:00 and 09:00 on 26 August, near the trailing edge of the magnetic flux rope (MFR)
Significant north directed anisotropy was found during the same 6 h (Kihara et al, 2021). It is out of scope of this paper to describe our analysis of this event, observed by the GMDN in detail, we show how the data recorded by Syowa neutron monitors (NM) and muon detectors (MD) are consistent with the observation by the GMDN
Summary
Solar cycle 24 was the weakest of those in the space age and the current solar minimum is expected to show very weak solar activity, similar to the deep solar minimum in 2009 (Smith et al, 2014; https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml). Different responses of NM and MD to atmospheric and geomagnetic effects need to be carefully examined to studying rigidity dependence of GCR modulation in space. CR observations resumed in February 1st, 2018 at Syowa Station in the Antarctic after nearly six decades These new observations are expected to play an important role in analyzing the combined data from GMDN and world wide NM network including the SSE. It is the purpose of this paper to present the first light data from observed atmospheric and space weather events during the solar minimum.
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