A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BAROMETER COEFFICIENTS FOR COSMIC-RAY INTENSITIES

Abstract

The data from all four Canadian cosmic-ray stations, Ottawa, Resolute, Churchill, and Sulphur Mountain, have been analyzed statistically with the help of an I.B.M. 650 computer over a period of three and a half years extending from the beginning of the I.G.Y. in July 1957 to the end of 1960. The barometer coefficients for triple and double coincidences in the international cubical telescope and for the nucleon intensity in the standard neutron monitor have been derived. A single correlation between intensity and pressure was used; two different ways of effecting this correlation were tried over a 6-month period. The results were compared and the best method was applied to the remaining three years. Monthly values were calculated, as were yearly values and also values for the 3-year period. The results reveal no significant seasonal variations in the barometer coefficients and no significant year-to-year variation. However, the seasonal fluctuations of the nucleon coefficient unsuspectedly follow those of the meson. A small latitude effect seems to be present. The nucleon coefficient at Sulphur Mountain, a high altitude station, is larger than the one at Ottawa (same geomagnetic latitude, sea level station).