Analysis of atmospheric pressure and temperature effects on cosmic ray measurements

Abstract

[1] In this paper, we analyze atmospheric pressure and temperature effects on the records of the cosmic ray detector CARPET. This detector has monitored secondary cosmic ray intensity since 2006 at Complejo Astronómico El Leoncito (San Juan, Argentina, 31 S, 69 W, 2550 m over sea level) where the geomagnetic rigidity cutoff, R c , is~9.8 GV. From the correlation between atmospheric pressure deviations and relative cosmic ray variations, we obtain a barometric coefficient of -0.44 AE 0.01 %/hPa. Once the data are corrected for atmospheric pressure, they are used to analyze temperature effects using four methods. Three methods are based on the surface temperature and the temperature at the altitude of maximum production of secondary cosmic rays. The fourth method, the integral method, takes into account the temperature height profile between 14 and 111 km above Complejo Astronómico El Leoncito. The results obtained from these four methods are compared on different time scales from seasonal time variations to scales related to the solar activity cycle. Our conclusion is that the integral method leads to better results to remove the temperature effect of the cosmic ray intensity observed at ground level.

The Effect of Some Meteorological Parameters on the Cosmic Ray Muons detected by KACST detector

“…It can be seen that the number of cosmic ray muons is reduced as the temperature increases. This anti-correlation between the two variables is in agreement with the previously published results of several researchers [6][7]. The decrease in the muon rate as the temperature increases is due to changes in the atmospheric density, which in turn depends on atmospheric temperature.…”

“…The rate of the cosmic ray muons due to changes in a meteorological variable x, can be determined experimentally by [6][7]:…”

“…At the detection level, the majority of the observed particles are muons. Their rate depends on several meteorological factors such as the atmospheric pressure, temperature, and the height of the pion production level (height of the first interaction); see for example [4][5][6][7]. Several investigations have shown that the variations in the atmospheric variables' coefficients depend on different factors, such as the type of detected particle and the cutoff rigidity of the considered site [8][9].…”

The Temperature Effect in Secondary Cosmic Rays (Muons) Observed at the Ground: Analysis of the Global Muon Detector Network Data

“…There are many methods of analyzing and removing the temperature effect from cosmic ray intensity observed by ground muon detectors. The simplest methods consist of the comparison of the cosmic ray intensity with: surface temperature changes, the variation of the altitude of maximum muon production (MMP), or the temperature variation at this altitude (Blackett 1938;Hess 1940;Duperier 1949;Trefall 1955a;French & Chasson 1959;Okazaki et al 2008;De Mendonça et al 2013). There are also methods that consider the temperature variation along the entire atmosphere through empirical or theoretical analyses (Sagisaka 1986;Dorman 2004;Berkova et al 2011;De Mendonça et al 2013).…”

Dependence of the GRAPES-3 EAS particle density and trigger rate on atmospheric pressure and temperature

“…The change in the atmospheric pressure and temperature can produces a significant variations in ground based observations. Thus, it is necessary to take an account of these local effects to get better measurements of shower parameters [1]. As expected, at Ooty, the diurnal variations and semi-diurnal periodicity is seen in temperature and pressure respectively (as shown in Fig.…”