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• ORCA is an instrument for the observation of cosmic rays in the Antarctic Peninsula. • Capable of detecting neutrons, muons and muon incidence directions. • Changes observed in the cosmic ray spectrum during a ICME passage in Nov. 2021. • Secondary muons show changes in their arrival directions along the ICME passage. • Different behavior, both spectrum and arrival directions, in shock, sheath and MC. The Antarctic Cosmic Ray Observatory (ORCA) has been in continuous operation since January 2020 and in nominal phase since March 2021 at the Spanish Antarctic Base Juan Carlos I (Livingston Island, Antarctica 62 ° 39 ′ 46 ′ ′ S , 60 ° 23 ′ 20 ′ ′ W at 12 m above sea level) at an effective vertical cutoff rigidity of R = 2.37 GV. ORCA consists of two neutron monitors, ORC-A with three BF 3 counter tubes following the NM64 standard, and ORC-B, with three bare BF 3 counter tubes; and a muon telescope, ORC-M consisting of two 1 m2 scintillators with the neutron monitors between them. ORCA provides neutron count rates at two different energy thresholds (provided by ORC-A and ORC-B) and muon count rates and muon incidence directions throughout the ORCA volume. The neutron-producing cosmic rays observed in ORC-A have a lower rigidity threshold than the muon-producing ones observed in ORC-M. The relationship between them gives an idea about the change in the slope of the cosmic ray spectrum at the corresponding thresholds, 2.37 GV for ORC-A and ≈ 12 GV for ORC-M. This relation allows to investigate the change in the cosmic ray spectrum along the different regions in an Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection, i.e. the shock, the sheath and the magnetic cloud. ORCA first observations are presented, focusing on the analysis of the Forbush Decrease (FD) that happened at the beginning of November 2021. We present these observations and show the promising capabilities of the Antarctic Cosmic Ray Observatory, which represents a new concept of cosmic ray and solar energetic particle detector. The cosmic ray spectrum changes during the Forbush decrease detected in early November 2021 as seen in the change in the ratio of ORC-A to ORC-M count rates. This change is clear after the arrival of the shock and during the magnetic cloud being smoother or even flat in the sheath. In addition, the secondary muons show changes in their arrival directions along the ICME, being clear the different behavior in shock, sheath and magnetic cloud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutron monitors have been the premier ground-based instruments for monitoring the near-Earth cosmic ray flux for more than 70 years. It is essential to continue with such measurements in order to extend this unique long-term time series. Moreover, with the recent interest of the aviation industry to space weather effects, and especially the radiation risk posed by solar energetic particles and galactic cosmic rays, it is vital to extend the current neutron monitor network in order to provide near-real-time measurements to the space weather community. In this paper we discuss a new electronics system that was retrofitted to the SANAE neutron monitor in Antarctica. We present initial results from this system, featuring very high temporal resolution and discuss the techniques applied to the data analysis. Based on these successful upgrades, we are confident that this system can be used to rejuvenate the aligning neutron monitor network, and even possibly to revive some of the decommissioned instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nucleation process is the first step in creating cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). There was a report on cosmic rays and cloud cover correlation in 2007 but whether the correlation is true remains a debated issue. CERN has initiated the CLOUD project to study the effects of nucleation. Fangqun Yu also reported a parameterization scheme for including the effect of atmospheric ionization on the generation of pre-CCN ion clusters. Our study explored past literature and used existing parameterization, measurement campaign datasets and ionization simulations to set an upper limit on the contribution of cosmic rays to the nucleation process. We have chosen the Jan 2005 solar energetic particle (SEP) event as the strongest SEP event in the past 60 years. We also chose to investigate the effect at Antarctica where the cosmic ray intensity is most prominent, and considered the actual atmospheric variables there. We calculate the effects of the background galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and relativistic solar particles in comparison with other nucleation sources such as stochastic heterogeneous nucleation particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]