2 research outputs found
Solar Magnetic Polarity Effect on Neutron Monitor Count Rates: Comparing Latitude Surveys and Antarctic Stations
The Galactic cosmic ray spectrum manifests pronounced variations over the
11-year sunspot cycle and more subtle variations over the 22-year solar
magnetic cycle. An important tool to study these variations is repeated
latitude surveys with neutron monitors (NMs) onboard icebreakers in conjunction
with land-based references. We revisit 13 annual latitude surveys from 1994 to
2007 using reference data from the Mawson NM instead of McMurdo NM (which
closed in 2017). We then consider two more latitude surveys (2018 and 2019)
with a monitor similar to the 3NM64 in the previous surveys but without lead
rings around the central tube, a so-called ``semi-leaded neutron monitor.'' The
new surveys extend the linear relationship among data taken at different cutoff
rigidity ranges. They also confirm the ``crossover'' measured near solar minima
during epochs of opposite solar magnetic polarity and the absence of a
crossover for epochs having the same solar magnetic polarity.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophys.