THE TEMPERATURE EFFECT IN SECONDARY COSMIC RAYS (MUONS) OBSERVED AT THE GROUND: ANALYSIS OF THE GLOBAL MUON DETECTOR NETWORK DATA

ABSTRACT The analysis of cosmic ray intensity variation seen by muon detectors at Earth's surface can help us to understand astrophysical, solar, interplanetary and geomagnetic phenomena. However, before comparing cosmic ray intensity variations with extraterrestrial phenomena, it is necessary...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2016-10, Vol.830 (2), p.88
Main Authors: de Mendonça, R. R. S., Braga, C. R., Echer, E., Dal Lago, A., Munakata, K., Kuwabara, T., Kozai, M., Kato, C., Rockenbach, M., Schuch, N. J., Al Jassar, H. K., Sharma, M. M., Tokumaru, M., Duldig, M. L., Humble, J. E., Evenson, P., Sabbah, I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ALTITUDE
ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
Atmospheric effects
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CORRELATIONS
COSMIC RADIATION
Cosmic ray intensities
Cosmic rays
Detectors
Earth surface
Geomagnetism
Ground-based observation
Latitude
MASS
Muon production
MUONS
NEUTRON MONITORS
NEUTRONS
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
Secondary cosmic rays
Sensors
solar-terrestrial relations
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
Sun: general
SURFACES
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
Temperature effects
Temperature variations
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Summary:ABSTRACT The analysis of cosmic ray intensity variation seen by muon detectors at Earth's surface can help us to understand astrophysical, solar, interplanetary and geomagnetic phenomena. However, before comparing cosmic ray intensity variations with extraterrestrial phenomena, it is necessary to take into account atmospheric effects such as the temperature effect. In this work, we analyzed this effect on the Global Muon Detector Network (GMDN), which is composed of four ground-based detectors, two in the northern hemisphere and two in the southern hemisphere. In general, we found a higher temperature influence on detectors located in the northern hemisphere. Besides that, we noticed that the seasonal temperature variation observed at the ground and at the altitude of maximum muon production are in antiphase for all GMDN locations (low-latitude regions). In this way, contrary to what is expected in high-latitude regions, the ground muon intensity decrease occurring during summertime would be related to both parts of the temperature effect (the negative and the positive). We analyzed several methods to describe the temperature effect on cosmic ray intensity. We found that the mass weighted method is the one that best reproduces the seasonal cosmic ray variation observed by the GMDN detectors and allows the highest correlation with long-term variation of the cosmic ray intensity seen by neutron monitors.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/0004-637X/830/2/88