Observation of the Forbush decrease on 2024 May 10, using the ALPAQUITA air-shower array at the 70-1000 GV rigidity range

TL;DR

This paper reports the first observation of a Forbush decrease on May 10, 2024, using the ALPAQUITA air-shower array, demonstrating its capability to study cosmic ray variations at high rigidities.

Contribution

The study introduces a new method for detecting Forbush decreases at high rigidities using the ALPAQUITA array, expanding the observational capabilities beyond traditional neutron and muon detectors.

Findings

Detected a 4.26% decrease in cosmic ray rate at 76GV rigidity.

Fitted the amplitude to a power-law spectrum showing a hard event.

Constrained the spectral softening between 100GV and 1000GV.

Abstract

The Andes Large area PArticle detector for Cosmic ray and Astronomy (ALPACA) is a new air-shower array experiment under construction in the Bolivian Andes, and its prototype ALPAQUITA surface array has been operating since 2023 April. In addition to the traditional $\ge$3-hit or $\ge$4-hit coincidences to trigger recording air-shower events, ALPAQUITA records the counting rates of the $\ge$1-hit and $\ge$2-hit events (Any1 and Any2, respectively). We report a successful detection of a Forbush decrease occurred on 2024 May 10 caused by a passage of an interplanetary shock formed ahead of the Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection. The amplitude detected in the Any1 rate is 4.26$\pm$0.33% at the median primary rigidity of 76GV which is consistent with the observations with the worldwide neutron monitor and muon detector networks. Under the assumption of a power-law rigidity spectrum, we renormalized the errors of the observed amplitude ($A_{obs}$) and fitted them as a function of the median primary rigidity ($R_{m}$) of each detector and observational method. The result $A_{obs} = (10.9\% \pm 0.9\%) \times (R_{m}/10\,GV)^{-0.55 \pm 0.07}$ exhibits a hard nature of this event. Our non-detection in the Any2 rate decrease constrains the amplitude with a 2$\sigma$ upper limit to be 0.95% at 960GV. This marginally suggests an existence of a spectral softening between 100GV and 1000GV as also suggested by the Misato underground muon detector at 145GV. Although a strong geomagnetic storm was observed during this period, we conclude it does not impact our results. Our novel technique realizes a unique coverage to study the behavior of the Forbush decreases at the highest rigidity.