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1.
The recent 2009 solar-minimum period was characterized by a record-setting high Galactic cosmic-ray flux observed at Earth. This, along with the unexpected low heliospheric magnetic-field magnitude, caused this period to be characterized as unusual compared with previous minimum epochs. In this work, selected solar-activity proxies and corresponding cosmic-ray observations for the past five solar cycles are compared with each other, and we identify those that showed unusual behaviour during the 2009 solar-minimum modulation period. Using a state-of-the-art numerical-modulation model, the proton-intensity spectra for the past solar minima are reproduced to establish which of the transport processes might be considered the main cause of this unusually high cosmic-ray flux. It is found that diffusion was more prominent during 2009 so that drift effects on the modulation of cosmic rays in the heliosphere were less evident than during previous solar-polarity epochs. However, particle drifts still occurred and because of these drift effects, the proton spectrum is predicted to be even higher during the coming A>0 solar-minimum period.  相似文献   

2.
We study solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) during the deep solar minimum, including the declining phase, of solar cycle 23 and compare the results of this unusual period with the results obtained during similar phases of the previous solar cycles 20, 21, and 22. These periods consist of two epochs each of negative and positive polarities of the heliospheric magnetic field from the north polar region of the Sun. In addition to cosmic-ray data, we utilize simultaneous solar and interplanetary plasma/field data including the tilt angle of the heliospheric current sheet. We study the relation between simultaneous variations in cosmic ray intensity and solar/interplanetary parameters during the declining and the minimum phases of cycle 23. We compare these relations with those obtained for the same phases in the three previous solar cycles. We observe certain peculiar features in cosmic ray modulation during the minimum of solar cycle 23 including the record high GCR intensity. We find, during this unusual minimum, that the correlation of GCR intensity is poor with sunspot number (correlation coefficient R=?0.41), better with interplanetary magnetic field (R=?0.66), still better with solar wind velocity (R=?0.80) and much better with the tilt angle of the heliospheric current sheet (R=?0.92). In our view, it is not the diffusion or the drift alone, but the solar wind convection that is the most likely additional effect responsible for the record high GCR intensity observed during the deep minimum of solar cycle 23.  相似文献   

3.
The previously developed basic theory of the heliospheric modulation of high-energy cosmic rays is generalized to lower energies. Comparison of the theory with the results of long-term observations of cosmic rays in the stratosphere carried out by the group from the Lebedev Institute of Physics inMoscow andMurmansk shows satisfactory agreement. The cosmic rays are shown to behave quite differently when even and odd solar cycles alternate. Possible causes of the anomalously high cosmic-ray intensity recorded during the last solar activity minimum are discussed.  相似文献   

4.
Drifts are one of the major cosmic ray modulation mechanisms in the heliosphere. Three types of drifts occur in the background heliospheric magnetic field, namely curvature, gradient and current sheet drifts. The last component occurs because of the switch in magnetic field polarity across the heliospheric current sheet and is the main topic of study. We discuss and implement a new approach to model drifts in a numerical modulation model. The model employs stochastic differential equations to solve the relevant transport equation in five (three spatial, energy and time) dimensions. What is of interest is the fact that the model can handle current sheet tilt angles up to the theoretical maximum of α=90° and still remain numerically stable. We use the additional insights gained from the numerical model to investigate the effectiveness of drifts along the current sheet by examining the relationship between the current sheet path length and the cosmic ray propagation time. It is found that diffusion can disrupt the drift process very effectively, leading to diffusive short circuiting of the current sheet by the cosmic rays.  相似文献   

5.
The ability to predict times of greater galactic cosmic ray (GCR) fluxes is important for reducing the hazards caused by these particles to satellite communications, aviation, or astronauts. The 11-year solar-cycle variation in cosmic rays is highly correlated with the strength of the heliospheric magnetic field. Differences in GCR flux during alternate solar cycles yield a 22-year cycle, known as the Hale Cycle, which is thought to be due to different particle drift patterns when the northern solar pole has predominantly positive (denoted as qA>0 cycle) or negative (qA<0) polarities. This results in the onset of the peak cosmic-ray flux at Earth occurring earlier during qA>0 cycles than for qA<0 cycles, which in turn causes the peak to be more dome-shaped for qA>0 and more sharply peaked for qA<0. In this study, we demonstrate that properties of the large-scale heliospheric magnetic field are different during the declining phase of the qA<0 and qA>0 solar cycles, when the difference in GCR flux is most apparent. This suggests that particle drifts may not be the sole mechanism responsible for the Hale Cycle in GCR flux at Earth. However, we also demonstrate that these polarity-dependent heliospheric differences are evident during the space-age but are much less clear in earlier data: using geomagnetic reconstructions, we show that for the period of 1905?–?1965, alternate polarities do not give as significant a difference during the declining phase of the solar cycle. Thus we suggest that the 22-year cycle in cosmic-ray flux is at least partly the result of direct modulation by the heliospheric magnetic field and that this effect may be primarily limited to the grand solar maximum of the space-age.  相似文献   

6.
Quite an unusual behavior of the low-energy ion fluxes measured with the LECP and CRS instruments onboard Voyager 1, which is located in the outer heliosphere at a distance of about 90 AU, has been observed since July 2002 until recently (February 2003). This behavior can be interpreted as a possible manifestation of a combination of the global heliospheric disturbance produced by solar activity and the precursor of the outer heliosphere with its termination shock. The extremely large variability of the enhanced ion fluxes since the second half of 2002 in several energy channels from 0.5 to several MeV/nucleon is presumed to be associated with the sources of their acceleration near the termination shock. The simultaneous increase in the flux of protons with energies above 70 MeV may result from the easier penetration of Galactic cosmic rays because of the reduction in modulation at the declining phase in the current solar cycle 23 after the maximum in 2000 and from an admixture of the anomalous component accelerated at the termination shock.  相似文献   

7.
In this work the galactic cosmic ray modulation in relation to solar activity indices and heliospheric parameters during the years 1996??C?2010 covering solar cycle 23 and the solar minimum between cycles 23 and 24 is studied. A new perspective of this contribution is that cosmic ray data with a rigidity of 10 GV at the top of the atmosphere obtained from many ground-based neutron monitors were used. The proposed empirical relation gave much better results than those in previous works concerning the hysteresis effect. The proposed models obtained from a combination of solar activity indices and heliospheric parameters give a standard deviation <?10?% for all the cases. The correlation coefficient between the cosmic ray variations of 10?GV and the sunspot number reached a value of r=?0.89 with a time lag of 13.6±0.4 months. The best reproduction of the cosmic ray intensity is obtained by taking into account solar and interplanetary indices such as sunspot number, interplanetary magnetic field, CME index, and heliospheric current sheet tilt. The standard deviation between the observed and calculated values is about 7.15?% for all of solar cycle 23; it also works very well during the different phases of the cycle. Moreover, the use of the cosmic ray intensity of 10?GV during the long minimum period between cycles 23 and 24 is of special interest and is discussed in terms of cosmic ray intensity modulation.  相似文献   

8.
This paper discusses the relationship between some characteristics of microwave type IV radio bursts and solar cosmic ray protons of MeV energy. It is shown that the peak flux intensity of those bursts is almost linearly correlated with the MeV proton peak flux observed by satellites near the Earth and that protons and electrons would be accelerated simultaneously by a similar mechanism during the explosive phase of solar flares.Brief discussion is given on the propagation of solar cosmic rays in the solar envelope after ejection from the flare regions.  相似文献   

9.
10.
Long-term variations of galactic cosmic rays were compared with the behavior of various solar activity indices and heliospheric parameters during the current solar cycle. This study continues previous works where the cosmic-ray intensity for the solar cycles 20, 21, and 22 was well simulated from the linear combination of the sunspot number, the number of grouped solar flares, and the geomagnetic index A p. The application of this model to the current solar cycle characterized by many peculiarities and extreme solar events led us to study more empirical relations between solar-heliospheric variables, such as the interplanetary magnetic field, coronal mass ejections, and the tilt of the heliospheric current sheet, and cosmic-ray modulation. By analyzing monthly cosmic-ray data from the Neutron Monitor Stations of Oulu (cutoff rigidity 0.81 GV) and Moscow (2.42 GV) the contribution of these parameters in the ascending, maximum, and descending phases of the cycle was investigated and it is shown that a combination of these parameters reproduces the majority of the modulation potential variations during this cycle. The approach applied makes it possible to better describe the behavior of cosmic rays in the epochs of the solar maxima, which could not be done before. An extended study of the time profiles, the correlations, and the time lags of the cosmic-ray intensity against these parameters using the method of minimizing RMS over all the considered period 1996 – 2006 determines characteristic properties of this cycle as being an odd cycle. Moreover, the obtained hysteresis curves and a correlative analysis during the positive polarity (qA>0, where q is the particle charge) and during the negative polarity (qA<0) intervals of the cycle result in significantly different behavior between solar and heliospheric parameters. The time lag and the correlation coefficient of the cosmic-ray intensity are higher for the solar indices in comparison to the heliospheric ones. A similar behavior also appears in the case of the intervals with positive and negative polarity of the solar magnetic field.  相似文献   

11.
Except for protons, the chemical composition of solar cosmic rays is very similar to the abundance of the elements at the photosphere of the Sun. If we consider the relative abundance ratio of protons to -particles (P/) at constant rigidity, this ratio is highly variable from one solar cosmic ray event to another. This ratio observed at the Earth, however, decreases monotonically with time from the onset of solar flares and, furthermore, is dependent on the heliocentric distance of the parent flares from the central meridian of the solar disk. P/'s which have been measured before the onset of SC geomagnetic storms change from 1.5 to 50 or more, being a function of the westward position of the source from the east limb of the Sun. These variations with respect to time and heliocentric distance suggest that the propagation of solar cosmic rays is strongly modulated in the interplanetary space. The major part of the -particles seem to propagate as if they are trapped within the magnetic clouds which produce SC geomagnetic and cosmic ray storms at the earth.The chemical composition and rigidity spectra of solar cosmic rays suggest that solar cosmic rays are mainly accelerated by the Fermi mechanism in solar flares. The observed variation of P/'s is produced mainly through the difference between the propagation characteristics of protons and -particles.NAS-NRC Associate with NASA.  相似文献   

12.
We study empirical relations between the modulation of galactic cosmic rays quantified in terms of the modulation potential and the following global heliospheric parameters: the open solar magnetic flux, the tilt angle of the heliospheric current sheet, and the polarity of the heliospheric magnetic field. We show that a combination of these parameters explains the majority of the modulation potential variations during the neutron monitor era 1951 – 2005. Two empirical models are discussed: a quasi-linear model and a model assuming a power-law relation between the modulation potential and the magnetic flux. Both models describe the data fairly well. These empirical models provide a simple tool for evaluating various cosmic-ray related effects on different time scales. The models can be extended backwards in time or used for predictions, if the corresponding global heliospheric variables can be independently estimated.  相似文献   

13.
We perform Monte Carlo simulations of cosmic ray-induced hard X-ray radiation from the Earth's atmosphere. We find that the shape of the spectrum emergent from the atmosphere in the energy range 25–300 keV is mainly determined by Compton scatterings and photoabsorption, and is almost insensitive to the incident cosmic ray spectrum. We provide a fitting formula for the hard X-ray surface brightness of the atmosphere as would be measured by a satellite-borne instrument, as a function of energy, solar modulation level, geomagnetic cut-off rigidity and zenith angle. A recent measurement by the INTEGRAL observatory of the atmospheric hard X-ray flux during the occultation of the cosmic X-ray background by the Earth agrees with our prediction within 10 per cent. This suggests that Earth observations could be used for in-orbit calibration of future hard X-ray telescopes. We also demonstrate that the hard X-ray spectra generated by cosmic rays in the crusts of the Moon, Mars and Mercury should be significantly different from that emitted by the Earth's atmosphere.  相似文献   

14.
During 30 years, a big theoretical effort to understand the physical processes in the heliospheric interface has followed the pioneer papers by Parker (1961) and Baranov et al. (1971). The heliospheric interface is a shell formed by the solar wind interaction with the ionized component of the circumsolar local interstellar medium (LISM). For fully ionized supersonic interstellar plasma two-shocks (the termination shock and the bow shock) and a contact discontinuity (the heliopause) are formed in the solar wind/LISM interaction. However, LISM consists of at least of three components additional to plasma: H-atoms, galactic cosmic rays and magnetic field. The interstellar atoms that penetrate into the solar wind, are ionized there and form pickup ions. A part of the pickup ions is accelerated to high energies of anomalous cosmic rays (ACRs). ACRs may modify the plasma flow upstream the termination shock and in the heliosheath. In this short review I summarize current understanding of the physical and gasdynamical processes in the heliospheric interface, outline unresolved problems and future perspectives. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

15.
The temporal variation of the cosmic-ray flux at Earth directly influences the production rate of cosmogenic isotopes in the Earth’s atmosphere. Here we put the emphasis on problems of the modulation of cosmic rays in the heliosphere. The physics of the modulation region, e.g., the heliosphere, is described and also the transport theory of the cosmic rays through the heliosphere is presented. The discussion includes more recent ideas of the modulation in the heliosheath. In the light of these ideas the cosmic-ray fluxes during the Maunder minimum are discussed. It is also discussed, that the 22-year cycle observed in the cosmogenic isotopes is a modulation effect of the cosmic rays, and hence directly connected with the physics of the outer heliosphere.  相似文献   

16.
The process of heliospheric modulation of intensity of galactic cosmic rays is investigated by solving the transport equation. The spatial-energetic distribution of cosmic rays in the present epoch and in the past is analyzed. It is demonstrated that the particle density and the energy density of cosmic rays in the Solar System in the distant past were much lower than the corresponding current values. The cosmic ray intensity modulation in the early heliosphere was especially strong in the case of low-energy particles.  相似文献   

17.
We investigate the problem of transition from galactic cosmic rays to extragalactic ultra-high energy cosmic rays. Using the model for extragalactic ultra-high energy cosmic rays and observed all-particle cosmic ray spectrum, we calculate the galactic spectrum of iron nuclei in the energy range 108–109 GeV. The flux and spectrum predicted at lower energies agree well with the KASCADE data. The transition from galactic to extragalactic cosmic rays is distinctly seen in spectra of protons and iron nuclei, when they are measured separately. The shape of the predicted iron spectrum agrees with the Hall diffusion.  相似文献   

18.
The effect of the solar wind on the spectrum of cosmic rays accelerated in the Galaxy is studied. The coefficient of cosmic-ray diffusion in the interplanetary turbulent magnetic field is assumed to be independent of the particle energy and a power-law function of the distance from the Sun. The particle spectrum at the heliospheric boundary is specified as a power-law function of the total particle energy.  相似文献   

19.
The modulation of cosmic rays (CRs) in the heliosphere is a dynamic and therefore a highly time-dependent process. Numerical models with only a time-dependent neutral sheet prove to be successful when moderate to low solar activity occurs but fail to describe large and discrete steps in modulated CRs when solar activity is high. To explain this feature of heliospheric modulation, the concept of global merged interaction regions (GMIRs) is required. The combination of gradient, curvature and neutral sheet drifts with these GMIRs has so far been the most successful approach in explaining the 11-year and 22-year cycles in the long-term modulation of CRs.  相似文献   

20.
Numerical solutions of the cosmic-ray equation of transport within the solar cavity and including the effects of diffusion, convection, and energy losses due to adiabatic deceleration, have been used to reproduce the modulation of galactic electrons, protons and helium nuclei observed during the period 1965–1970. Kinetic energies between 10 and 104 MeV/nucleon are considered. Computed and observed spectra (where data is available) are given for the years 1965, 1968, 1969 and 1970 together with the diffusion coefficients. These diffusion coefficients are assumed to be of separable form in rigidity and radial dependence, and are consistent with the available magneticfield power spectra. The force-field solutions are given for these diffusion coefficients and galactic spectra and compared with the numerical solutions. For each of the above years we have (i) determined the radial density gradients near Earth; (ii) found the mean energy losses suffered by galactic particles as they diffuse to the vicinity of the Earth's orbit; (iii) shown quantitatively the exclusion of low-energy galactic protons and helium nuclei from near Earth by convective effects; and (iv), for nuclei of a given energy near Earth, obtained their distribution in energy before entering the solar cavity. It is shown that the energy losses and convection lead to near-Earth nuclei spectra at kinetic energies ≤100 MeV/nucleon in which the differential intensity is proportional to the kinetic energy with little dependence on the form of the galactic spectrum. This dependence is in agreement with the observed spectra of all species of atomic nuclei and we argue that this provides strong observational evidence for the presence of energy losses in the propagation process; and for the exclusion of low energy galactic nuclei from near Earth.  相似文献   

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