Local environmental effects on cosmic ray observations at Syowa Station in the Antarctic; PARMA-based snow cover correction for neutrons and machine learning approach for neutrons and muons

Kataoka, Ryuho*; Sato, Tatsuhiko; Kato, Chihiro*; Kadokura, Akira*; Kozai, Masayoshi*; Miyake, Shoko*; Murase, Kiyoka*; Yoshida, Rihito*; Tomikawa, Yoshihiro*; Munakata, Kazuoki*

Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (Internet), 12, p.37_1 - 37_11, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1051/swsc/2022033

Solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays around the solar minimum in 2019-2020 looks different in the secondary neutrons and muons observed at the ground. To compare the solar modulation of primary cosmic rays in detail, we have to remove the possible seasonal variations caused by the atmosphere and surrounding environment. As such surrounding environment effects, we evaluate the snow cover effect on neutron count rate and the atmospheric temperature effect on muon count rate both simultaneously observed at Syowa Station in the Antarctic (69.01 S, 39.59 E). The corrected muon count rate starts decreasing in late 2019, earlier than the corrected neutron count rate which starts decreasing in early 2020, possibly indicating the rigidity dependent solar modulation in the heliosphere.