Analysis of Ground Level Enhancements (GLE): Extreme solar energetic particle events have hard spectra

作者：Asvestari E; Willamo T; Gil A; Usoskin I G; Kovaltsov G A; Mikhailov V V; Mayorov A

来源：Advances in Space Research, 2017, 60(4): 781-787.

DOI：10.1016/j.asr.2016.08.043

• Solar energetic particles
• Cosmic rays

Nearly 70 Ground Level Enhancements (GLEs) of cosmic rays have been recorded by the worldwide neutron monitor network since the 1950s depicting a big variety of energy spectra of solar energetic particles (SEP). Here we studied a statistical relation between the event-integrated intensity of GLEs (calculated as count-rate relative excess, averaged over all available polar neutron monitors, and expressed in percent-hours) and the hardness of the solar particle energy spectra. For each event the integral omnidirectional event integrated fluences of particles with energy above 30 MeV (F-30) and above 200 MeV (F-200) were computed using the reconstructed spectra, and the ratio between the two fluences was considered as a simple index of the event's hardness. We also provided a justification of the spectrum estimate in the form of the Band-function, using direct PAMELA data for GLE 71 (17-May-2012). We found that, while there is no clear relation between the intensity and the hardness for weak events, all strong events with the intensity greater 100 % h are characterized by a very hard spectrum. This implies that a hard spectrum can be securely assumed for all extreme GLE events, e.g., those studied using cosmogenic isotope data in the past.

• 出版日期2017-8-15