Abstract
The use of the World Neutron Monitor Network to detect high-energy solar neutrons is discussed in detail. It is shown that the existing network can be used for the routine detection of intense sporadic solar-neutron events whenever they occur. A technique is suggested involving the weighted summation of responses of separate monitors to solar neutrons. It is demonstrated that the use of this method improves the significance of solar-neutron event detection. Different results of the simulation of the neutron-monitor sensitivity to solar neutrons have been tested with respect to their application for practical use. It is shown that the total number of neutrons with energy above 300 MeV injected from the Sun during a solar flare can be estimated directly from the time-integrated neutron-monitor response to solar neutrons without any model assumptions. The estimation technique has been developed.
Highlights
Ground-based neutron monitors (NMs) are widely used for registration of the nucleon component of cosmic rays in the Earth’s atmosphere
The goal of the present paper is to study the feasibility of the World Neutron Monitor Network as a tool for the investigation of high-energy solar neutrons
One of the main difficulties encountered so far in the detection of high-energy solar neutrons by means of a neutron monitor is the weakness of the informative signal with respect to the background level Nb, which is caused by Galactic component of cosmic rays (GCR)
Summary
Ground-based neutron monitors (NMs) are widely used for registration of the nucleon component of cosmic rays in the Earth’s atmosphere. During the last three solar cycles, more than 50 ground-level enhancement (GLE) events caused by SCRs were observed by the World Neutron Monitor Network (Shea and Smart, 1990; Stoker, 1994). It is very important for solar-physics research that the network can detect high-energy neutrons produced in the solar atmosphere during solar flares We tested the sensitivity by means of SNEs which were detected with high significance and reliability by different NMs. We used data of neutrons and c-rays observed by spacecraft in the interplanetary space.
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