Anisotropy of transient variations of cosmic-ray intensity
The angular distribution of the anisotropy of cosmic rays in interplanetary space is generally assumed to follow a cosine function. In the case of the daily variation, the source direction lies essentially in the equatorial plane. In the present calculation, the following three points were taken into account: (1) the latitude of the principal direction, (2) the angular distribution functions, and (3) the increases in flux of cosmic-ray particles. The response functions, the asymptotic directions, and the variation spectra are also involved in the calculation. Because of the rotation of the earth with respect to the source direction, which is fixed at the 12-h meridian, the daily variations are obtained. The variations include higher harmonics if the angular distribution is other than a simple cosine function.Comparing the calculated curves with observed data, the anisotropy in the space outside the geomagnetic field can be estimated with parameters such as the source direction in latitude and longitude, the half-width of the angular distribution, and the amplitude and exponent of the variation spectrum, which are all time-dependent. An increase which occurred on 24 March 1966 was analyzed.