Properties of Forbush Decreases with AMS-02 Daily Proton Flux Data

Abstract

A Forbush decrease (FD) is a sudden reduction of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) that is usually caused by intense solar wind transients, such as Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (ICMEs) and Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs). Using daily proton fluxes measured by AMS-02 between 2011 May and 2019 October, we identified 142 FD events with an automatic systematic analysis method. The properties of 47 FDs caused by ICMEs and of 54 FDs caused by CIRs were analyzed. We found that the rigidity dependence of the GCR flux decrease is generally better described by an exponential function for both ICME and CIR FDs. We also found that the FD Amplitude of ICME FDs has a moderate correlation with the minimum Dst index and a number of solar wind parameters, such as maximum temperature, pressure, and magnetic field. For CIR FD events, neither FD Amplitude nor Maximum Affected Rigidity had a significant correlation with solar wind parameters.

Keywords

• Forbush effect
• Galactic cosmic rays
• Solar coronal mass ejections
• Corotating streams
• Solar activity