Orographic effect in cosmic rays observing

Polar Geophysical Institute, 184209, Apatity, 26a Academgorodok, Russia.

^* Corresponding author: balabin@pgia.ru

Abstract

The Baksan neutron monitor (NM) is installed at the Baksan neutrino observatory, the Northern Caucasus, which is located at the bottom of the Baksan gorge, at height of 1700 m above sea level. The cosmic rays flux recorded at the ground level depends on the amount of the substance (air), through which the particles are passing, from the uppermost layers of the atmosphere to a cosmic ray detector. So, besides the cosmic rays flux data, the station records pressure; the pressure meter recordings interval is 1 minute, like that of the cosmic rays. The perennial barometric data have been analysed to show that at the Baksan station one can often observe a daily pressure variation that is related to the topography features. In general, the local conditions (wind, local orographic effect) result in pressure variations, which do not occur in the cosmic rays, because they do not change the thickness of the atmosphere but result from the effect of the ground level. The barometric variation discovered is not so big (about 1 mb), but is also synchronously observed in the cosmic rays. It means that the pressure variation is not a local phenomenon. In this case, the NM detects the amount of the substance in the atmosphere, showing that pressure changes are not due to dynamic reasons (the Bernoulli effect) and it is the atmosphere strata that changes in reality. Hence, the orographic effect covers a significant part of the troposphere, resulting in the change of the atmosphere strata located over the NM. No similar pressure variation is observed in other NMs.