A Critical Analysis for Sidereal Time Variations of Cosmic Rays on the Pacific

Abstract

The problem of distinguishing a true sidereal diurnal variation in cosmic-ray intensity from a seasonal change in the amplitude of the solar diurnal variation is approached from the standpoint of the harmonic dial type of analysis. It is shown that the regular cyclic arrangement of the datum points taken in chronological order serves as a criterion for the presence of the sidereal time variation. Cosmic-ray data taken on the Pacific Ocean during 1936 by A. H. Compton and R. N. Turner are shown to contain no sidereal diurnal component larger than the experimental error.