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Seven Decades of Neutron Monitors (1951–2019): Overview and Evaluation of Data Sources
Author(s) -
Väisänen Pauli,
Usoskin Ilya,
Mursula Kalevi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1029/2020ja028941
Subject(s) - consistency (knowledge bases) , data quality , computer science , database , neutron monitor , cosmic ray , neutron , data consistency , remote sensing , environmental science , physics , geology , nuclear physics , engineering , metric (unit) , operations management , artificial intelligence
The worldwide network of neutron monitors (NMs) is the primary instrument to study cosmic‐ray variability on time scales of up to 70 yr. Since the 1950s, 147 NMs with publicly available data have been in operation, and their records are archived in and distributed through different repositories and data sources. A comprehensive analysis of all available NM data sets (300 data sets from 147 NMs) is performed here to check the quality and consistency of the data. The data sources include World Data Center for Cosmic Rays, the Neutron Monitor Database, the Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radiowave Propagation (IZMIRAN) and individual station/institution databases. It was found that The data from the same NM can be nonidentical and of different quality in different sources. We give and tabulate here a recommendation for the optimal data source of each NM. We also present here a list of 29 “prime” stations with the longest and most reliable data. Verified data sets for these prime stations are provided as supplementary information.