The highest cosmic ray fluxes ever recorded: What happened to the earth's deflector shield?

Details The highest cosmic ray fluxes ever recorded: What happened to the earth's deflector shield? The highest cosmic ray fluxes ever recorded: What happened to the earth's deflector shield?

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsh23d..08l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SH23D-08

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

[2104] Interplanetary Physics / Cosmic Rays, [7511] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Coronal Holes, [7524] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Magnetic Fields, [7536] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Solar Activity Cycle

Scientific paper

The summer of 2009 saw the largest cosmic ray flux ever measured at 1AU. Observed by neutron monitors this solar minimum flux was 6% larger than that of the last solar minimum in 1996, and 4% larger than the previous high of the space age. Clearly, something dramatically affected the cosmic ray "deflector shield" of the Earth this time around, but what was it? Using a combination of serendipitous observations made by the solid state recorder of the SOHO spacecraft, an analysis of SOHO/MDI magnetograms combined with SOHO/EIT and SDO/AIA coronal imaging, we deduce that a pronounced north-south asymmetry in the meridional circulation flow resulted in the evolution of the photospheric magnetic to a prolonged prevalence of the negative magnetic polarity in the equatorial region that were the root cause of the observed cosmic ray flux increase. The negative sign, weakness and low rigidity of the interplanetary magnetic field, driven by the excess of open magnetic flux resulting from the flow asymmetry in the solar interior, enabled more cosmic rays of the energy range measured at Earth to creep into our atmosphere than previously measured.

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