A Numerical Study of the Effects of a Corotating Interaction Region on Cosmic-Ray Transport. II. Features of Cosmic-Ray Composition and Rigidity

Abstract

We continue the numerical modeling of a corotating interaction region (CIR) and the effects it has on solar-rotational recurrent variations of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). A magnetohydrodynamic model is adapted to simulate the background solar wind plasma with a CIR structure in the inner heliosphere, which is incorporated into a comprehensive Parker-type transport model. The focus is on the simulation of the effects of a CIR on GCR protons and the two helium isotopes as a function of heliolongitude. This is to establish whether the difference in composition affects how they are modulated by the CIR in terms of their distribution in longitude. It is demonstrated that particle diffusion and drift influence the effects of the CIR with increasing rigidity from 100 MV up to 15 GV. It is found that protons and helium isotopes are modulated differently with longitude by the CIR and that particle drift influences the modulation effects in longitude. These differences dissipate with increasing rigidity. The final results are focused on the simulated amplitude of these GCR flux variations as a function of rigidity. The amplitude displays a power-law behavior above ∼1 GV with an index similar to the power index of the rigidity dependence of the assumed diffusion coefficients. The simulations further show that below this rigidity, the amplitude at first flattens off, displaying a plateau-like profile, but it then increases systematically with decreasing rigidity below ∼0.3 GV. Again, a power-law behavior is displayed, but it is completely different from that above 1 GV.

Keywords

• Galactic cosmic rays
• Heliosphere
• Solar activity
• Solar wind