Neutron Monitoring: Past, Present, Future

Ground-based detectors were instrumental in establishing the nature of cosmic rays in the early days of the field, and they continue to provide invaluable information now and for the foreseeable future. This article begins with homage to Scott Forbush and the fundamental discoveries he made with the Carnegie Institution ionization chambers in the 1930s and 1940s. Circa 1950 John Simpson invented the neutron monitor, an instrument more capable, sensitive, and stable than the ionization chamber. An early landmark of the neutron monitor era was the famous 1956 solar cosmic ray event that proved diffusion theory is essential for describing charged particle transport in space. In the modern era, the instrument of choice is an array. The days are gone when a lone neutron monitor placed anywhere on Earth can make discoveries. Now and in the future, science with neutron monitors will require coordinated arrays of detectors that enable continuous, realtime measurement of the cosmic ray directional distribution and energy spectrum. An emerging application for neutron monitors is in the field of space weather prediction and specification, especially as concerns major radiation hazard from solar particles.