On Mid-Term Periodicities in Cosmic Rays

Abstract

The contributions of quasi-periodic variations of cosmic rays for T>27 days at the primary energies to which neutron monitors are sensitive have a rather complicated character. They were reported in several papers (e.g. Valdés-Galicia, Perez-Enriquez, and Otaola, 1996; Mavromichalaki et al., 2003; Kudela et al., 2002; Caballero and Valdés-Galicia, 2001) from individual stations and for various time intervals covered. The data archive of several neutron monitor stations developed within the NMDB project ( www.nmdb.eu ) now involves long time series of measurements at neutron monitors situated at different geomagnetic cut-off rigidity positions and at different altitudes. It is updated continuously. Using the daily averages of cosmic-ray intensity at three selected stations within NMDB: i) the temporal evolution of the selected quasi-periodicities, especially those of approximately 1.7 yr, 150 days and 26 – 32 days respectively, until 2008 are reviewed, ii) the similarities of the spectra are checked and iii) the occurrence of quasi-periodicities with those observed in solar, interplanetary and geomagnetic activities (Moussas et al., 2005; Richardson and Cane, 2005) as well as in energetic particles below the atmospheric threshold are discussed (Laurenza et al., 2009).