1] A large database of anomalies, registered by 220 satellites in different orbits over the period 1971--1994, has been compiled. For the first time, data of 49 Russian Kosmos satellites have been included in a statistical analysis. The database also contains a large set of daily and hourly space weather parameters. A series of statistical analyses made it possible to quantify, for different satellite orbits, space weather conditions in the days characterized by anomaly occurrences. In particular, very intense fluxes (>1000 particles cm À2 s À1 sr À1 (pfu) at energy >10 MeV) of solar protons are linked to anomalies registered by satellites in high-altitude (>15,000 km) near-polar (inclination >55°) orbits typical for navigation satellites such as those used in the GPS network, NAVSTAR, etc. (the rate of anomalies increases by a factor of $20) and to a much smaller extent to anomalies in geostationary orbits (the rate increases by a factor of $4). The efficiency in producing anomalies is found to be negligible for proton fluences <100 pfu at energies >10 MeV. Elevated fluxes of energetic (>2 MeV) electrons >10 8 cm À2 d À1 sr À1 are observed by GOES on days with satellite anomalies occurring at geostationary (GOES, SCATHA, METEOSAT, MARECS A, etc.) and low-altitude (<1500 km) near-polar (>55°) orbits (Kosmos, SAMPEX, etc.). These elevated fluxes are not observed on days of anomalies registered in high-altitude near-polar orbits. Direct and indirect connections between anomaly occurrence and geomagnetic perturbations are also discussed. Citation: Iucci, N., et al. (2005), Space weather conditions and spacecraft anomalies in different orbits, Space Weather, 3, S01001,

A high-time resolution Neutron Monitor Database (NMDB) has started to be realized in the frame of the Seventh Framework Programme\ud of the European Commission. This database will include cosmic ray data from at least 18 neutron monitors distributed around\ud the world and operated in real-time. The implementation of the NMDB will provide the opportunity for several research applicationsmost of which will be realized in real-time mode. An important one will be the establishment of an Alert signal when dangerous solar\ud cosmic ray particles are heading to the Earth, resulting into ground level enhancements effects registered by neutron monitors. Furthermore,\ud on the basis of these events analysis, the mapping of all ground level enhancement features in near real-time mode will provide an\ud overall picture of these phenomena and will be used as an input for the calculation of the ionization of the atmosphere. The latter will beuseful together with other contributions to radiation dose calculations within the atmosphere at several altitudes and will reveal the\ud absorbed doses during flights. Moreover, special algorithms for anisotropy and pitch angle distribution of solar cosmic rays, which have\ud been developed over the years, will also be set online offering the advantage to give information about the conditions of the interplanetary\ud space. All of the applications will serve the needs of the modern world which relies at space environment and will use the extensivenetwork of neutron monitors as a multi-directional spectrographic detector. On top of which, the decreases of the cosmic ray intensity –\ud known as Forbush decreases – will also be analyzed and a number of important parameters such as galactic cosmic ray anisotropy will be\ud made available to the users of NMDB. A part of the NMDB project is also dedicated to the creation of a public outreach website with the scope to inform about cosmic rays and their possible effects on humans, technological systems and space-terrestrial environment. Therefore, NMDB will also stand as an informative gate on space research through neutron monitor's data usage.\ud © 2010 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

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The paper describes results of the studies devoted to the solar activity impact on the Earth's upper atmosphere and ionosphere, conducted within the frame of COST ES0803 Action. Aim: The aim of the paper is to represent results coming from different research groups in a unified form, aligning their specific topics into the general context of the subject. Methods: The methods used in the paper are based on data-driven analysis. Specific databases are used for spectrum analysis, empirical modeling, electron density profile reconstruction, and forecasting techniques. Results: Results are grouped in three sections: Medium-and long-term ionospheric response to the changes in solar and geomagnetic activity, storm-time ionospheric response to the solar and geomagnetic forcing, and modeling and forecasting techniques. Section 1 contains five subsections with results on 27-day response of low-latitude ionosphere to solar extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) radiation, response to the recurrent geomagnetic storms, long-term trends in the upper atmosphere, latitudinal dependence of total electron content on EUV changes, and statistical analysis of ionospheric behavior during prolonged period of solar activity. Section 2 contains a study of ionospheric variations induced by recurrent CIR-driven storm, a case-study of polar cap absorption due to an intense CME, and a statistical study of geographic distribution of so-called E-layer dominated ionosphere. Section 3 comprises empirical models for describing and forecasting TEC, the F-layer critical frequency foF2, and the height of maximum plasma density. A study evaluates the usefulness of effective sunspot number in specifying the ionosphere state. An original method is presented, which retrieves the basic thermospheric parameters from ionospheric sounding data.

Abstract. We present the results of a ship survey conducted from Italy to Antarctica and back during the 1996-1997 solar minimum measuring the latitude variation in the neutron component of cosmic radiation at sea level. High-energy atmospheric neutrons were detected by a 3NM-64 and thermalized atmospheric neutrons were detected by two bare BF3 counters. Discussions of the internal consistency of the data and the stability of the detectors, investigations of meteorological effects, and data corrections are presented in two companion papers. In this paper we compute updated vertical cutoff rigidities corrected for the penumbra effect, and we estimate apparent cutoff rigidities, which take into account the contribution of nonvertically incident particles to the counting rate. When comparing cosmic ray intensities observed in the same place, a small forward-backward effect is found and explained as the effect of an asymmetric shielding structure around the monitor. Latitude dependencies (i.e., neutron intensities versus cutoff rigidity) and associated coupling functions are computed for both monitors and compared. The NM latitude dependence obtained for the 1996-1997 solar minimum is found to be almost identical to that obtained by other authors in the previous solar minimum. The absence of the so-called "crossover" effect when comparing coupling functions of subsequent solar minima is discussed also on the basis of cosmic ray intensity changes observed by neutron monitor stations.