Summary of major solar-proton events

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:5596909

Smart, D F; Shea, M A

Solar proton events have been routinely detected by satellites since the 20th solar cycle; however, before that time only very major proton events were detected at the Earth. Even though the detection thresholds differed between the 19th and more recent cycles, more than 200 solar proton events with a flux of over 100 particles 1(sq cm s ster) above 10 MeV have been recorded at the Earth in the last three solar cycles. At least 15% of these events had protons with energies greater than 450 MeV detected at the Earth. Other than an increase in solar proton event occurrence with increasing solar cycle, no recognizable pattern could be identified between the occurrence of solar proton events and the solar cycle. The knowledge we have gained from the data acquired over the past 40 years illustrates the difficulty in extrapolating back in time to infer the number and intensity of major solar proton events at the Earth.

• Research Organization: Air Force Geophysics Lab., Hanscom AFB, MA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5596909
• Report Number(s): AD-A-231456/5/XAB; GL-TR--90-0354
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640104* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Solar Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BARYONS
CORRELATIONS
DETECTION
DOCUMENT TYPES
EARTH PLANET
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
HADRONS
MEV RANGE
MEV RANGE 10-100
MEV RANGE 100-1000
NUCLEONS
PLANETS
PROTONS
RADIATIONS
REVIEWS
SATELLITES
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR CYCLE
SOLAR FLARES
SOLAR PARTICLES
SOLAR PROTONS
SOLAR RADIATION
STELLAR RADIATION