Applications and usage of the real-time Neutron Monitor Database

H. Mavromichalaki (1) , Athanasios Papaioannou (1) , Christina Plainaki (1) , C. Sarlanis (1) , G. Souvatzoglou (1) , M. Gerontidou (1) , M. Papailiou (1) , E. Eroshenko (2) , A. Belov (2) , V. Yanke (2) , Erwin O. Flückiger (3) , R. Bütikofer (3) , M. Parisi (4) , M. Storini (4) , Karl-Ludwig Klein (5, 6, 7) , Nicolas Fuller (5, 6, 7) , Christian Steigies (8) , O. M. Rother (8) , Bernd Heber (8) , R. F. Wimmer-Schweingruber (8) , K. Kudela (9) , I. Strharsky (9) , R. Langer (9) , Ilya G. Usoskin (10) , Askar Ibragimov (10) , A. Chilingaryan (11) , G. Hovsepyan (11) , A. Reymers (11) , A. Yeghikyan (11) , O. Kryakunova (12) , E. Dryn (12) , N. Nikolayevskiy (12) , L. Dorman (13) , L. Pustilnik (13)

1 NKUA - National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
2 IZMIRAN - Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation
3 UNIBE - Universität Bern / University of Bern
4 Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma 3
5 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
6 Informatique
7 Physique solaire
8 University of Kiel
9 Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences
10 Department of Physics, University of Oulu
11 Yerevan Physics Institute
12 Institute of Ionosphere
13 TAU - Tel Aviv University

A high-time resolution Neutron Monitor Database (NMDB) has started to be realized in the frame of the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission. This database will include cosmic ray data from at least 18 neutron monitors distributed around the world and operated in real-time. The implementation of the NMDB will provide the opportunity for several research applications most of which will be realized in real-time mode. An important one will be the establishment of an Alert signal when dangerous solar cosmic ray particles are heading to the Earth, resulting into ground level enhancements effects registered by neutron monitors. Furthermore, on the basis of these events analysis, the mapping of all ground level enhancement features in near real-time mode will provide an overall picture of these phenomena and will be used as an input for the calculation of the ionization of the atmosphere. The latter will be useful together with other contributions to radiation dose calculations within the atmosphere at several altitudes and will reveal the absorbed doses during flights. Moreover, special algorithms for anisotropy and pitch angle distribution of solar cosmic rays, which have been developed over the years, will also be set online offering the advantage to give information about the conditions of the interplanetary space. All of the applications will serve the needs of the modern world which relies at space environment and will use the extensive network of neutron monitors as a multi-directional spectrographic detector. On top of which, the decreases of the cosmic ray intensity - known as Forbush decreases - will also be analyzed and a number of important parameters such as galactic cosmic ray anisotropy will be 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.

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

H. Mavromichalaki, Athanasios Papaioannou, Christina Plainaki, C. Sarlanis, G. Souvatzoglou, et al.. Applications and usage of the real-time Neutron Monitor Database. Advances in Space Research, 2011, 47, pp.2210-2222. ⟨10.1016/j.asr.2010.02.019⟩. ⟨hal-03786155⟩