Magnetospheric effects of cosmic rays. 1. Long-term changes in the geomagnetic cutoff rigidities for the stations of the global network of neutron monitors

Abstract

Vertical geomagnetic cutoff rigidities are obtained for the stations of the global network of neutron monitors via trajectory calculations for each year of the period from 1950 to 2020. Geomagnetic cutoff rigidities are found from the model of the Earth’s main field International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) for 1950–2015, and the forecast until 2020 is provided. In addition, the geomagnetic cutoff rigidities for the same period are obtained by Tsyganenko model T89 (Tsyganenko, 1989) with the average annual values of the Kp-index. In each case, the penumbra is taken into account in the approximation of the flat and power spectra of variations of cosmic rays. The calculation results show an overall decrease in geomagnetic cutoff rigidities, which is associated with the overall decrease and restructuring of the geomagnetic field during the reporting period, at almost all points.