Abstract
IT is generally assumed that the constant intensity of cosmic radiation at sea-level beyond a certain latitude is accounted for by the clocking effect of the atmosphere, which absorbs all particles of energy below the limit of that latitude resulting from the action of the earth's magnetic field. An important consequence of this assumption is that the latitude at which the intensity becomes constant should be displaced towards the geomagnetic poles as the altitude above sea-level increases, since then the thickness of the absorbing air layer decreases and therefore also the energy absorbed. Compton's mountain experiments1 already throw doubt on the existence of this displacement, and this doubt is strengthened by Cosyns's stratospheric measurements2 which, while admittedly inconclusive, indicate that the intensity remains constant north of 49° even at the highest altitudes reached.
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References
Compton, A. H., Phys. Rev., 43, 398 (1933).
Cosyns, M., NATURE, 137, 616 (1936).
Janossy, L., Z. Phys., 104, 430 (1937).
Lemaitre, G., and Vallarta, M. S., Phys. Rev., 50, 493 (1936). For the specification of the energy in störmers, see Phys. Rev., 49, 720 (1936), and for the equivalence between störmers and electron-volts, see Phys. Rev., 43, 90 (1933).
Hale, G. E., Seares, F. H., van Maanen, A., Ellerman, F., Astrophys. J., 47, 206 (1918).
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VALLARTA, M. Cosmic Rays and the Magnetic Moment of the Sun. Nature 139, 839 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139839a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139839a0
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