The Extraordinary Increase of Cosmic-Ray Intensity on November 19, 1949

Abstract

Four sudden increases in cosmic-ray intensity associated with solar flares or chromospheric eruptions have so far been observed during more than a decade of continuous registration of cosmic-ray intensity. The last and largest of these increases occurred on November 19, 1949, when such an effect was recorded for the first time at a mountain station at Climax, Colorado. Here the intensity increased to about 200 percent above normal in half an hour. At the sea-level station at Cheltenham, Maryland, the increase was about 43 percent. No increase occurred at the equator. From the increase in the effect with altitude and latitude, it is concluded that the increase was due to the nucleonic component produced by relatively low energy primary charged particles probably accelerated by some solar mechanism.