Peculiarities of hard cosmic radiation variations near the ground surface in accordance with geomagnetic activity changes

Abstract

The mechanism of primary cosmic particle transformation into secondary radiation near the ground surface is analysed. It is known that the main part of secondary cosmic radiation consists of muons. They are formed after nuclear reactions between primary protons and the nuclei of atmospheric gases. Maximum muon concentrations are formed at an altitude of 15 km from the ground surface. Because of a short existence time of muons (2 ms), the amount of these particles near the ground surface depends on variations in the altitude of the above-mentioned atmospheric layer. Therefore, an unstable flux of muons is registered near the ground surface. Their variations are connected with the Sun’s radiation instability, geomagnetic field variations, meteorological process changes, etc. [...].