Cosmic ray anisotropy and solar activity

Abstract

In this paper an attempt is made to study the occurrence of a large number of high amplitude anisotropic wave train events in cosmic ray intensity during 1981-1994 and to identify a possible correlation with solar activity using the hourly neutron monitor data of Deep River station. The diurnal time of maximum for both HAE as well as for all days is found to significantly shift towards an earlier time as compared to the corotational/azimuthal direction since the year 1991 onward. It is found that diurnal amplitude and 10.7-cm solar radio flux significantly deviates and reaches to its maximum and phase remains in the corotational direction during the years close to solar activity maximum for HAE. The occurrence of high amplitude anisotropic wave train events is dominant during solar activity minimum as well as maximum years. The amplitude as well as phase of the cosmic ray diurnal anisotropy during HAEs is well correlated with solar activity. The amplitude as well as phase of diurnal anisotropy shows very nominal correlation with 10.7-cm solar radio flux (r = 0.48, 0.47). However, the frequency of occurrence of HAEs shows a very weak correlation (r = -0.36) with 10.7-cm solar radio flux.