Direct and indirect relations of cosmic rays to space weather

Some examples (particularly the one of March - April, 2001), relevant for cosmic ray (CR) studies related to Space Weather, are discussed: (i) possible precursors in the CR flux recorded by neutron monitor (NM) and muon telescope (MT) networks before geomagnetic disturbances; (ii) NM data for correlative radiation measurements on airplanes; (iii) different CR intensity variability at different cutoff rigidity sites during the March 3 1, 2001 geomagnetic disturbance; the inclusion of Dst values in the CR trajectory computations improves the estimates of the NM counting-rate increase due to cutoff depressions during high levels of geomagnetic activity. in this context, coordinated NM and low-altitude polar-orbiting satellite measurements are important.