Neutron monitor yield function: New improved computations

A ground-based neutron monitor (NM) is a standard tool to measure cosmic ray (CR) variability near Earth, and it is crucially important to know its yield function for primary CRs. Although there are several earlier theoretically calculated yield functions, none of them agrees with experimental data of latitude surveys of sea-level NMs, thus suggesting for an inconsistency. A newly computed yield function of the standard sea-level 6NM64 NM is presented here separately for primary CR protons and -particles, the latter representing also heavier species of CRs. The computations have been done using the GEANT-4 PLANETOCOSMICS Monte-Carlo tool and a realistic curved atmospheric model. For the first time, an effect of the geometrical correction of the NM effective area, related to the finite lateral expansion of the CR induced atmospheric cascade, is considered, which was neglected in the previous studies. This correction slightly enhances the relative impact of higher-energy CRs (energy above 5-10 GeV/nucleon) in NM count rate. The new computation finally resolves the long-standing problem of disagreement between the theoretically calculated spatial variability of CRs over the globe and experimental latitude surveys. The newly calculated yield function, corrected for this geometrical factor, appears fully consistent with the experimental latitude surveys of NMs performed during three consecutive solar minima in 1976-1977, 1986-1987, and 1996-1997. Thus, we provide a new yield function of the standard sea-level NM 6NM64 that is validated against experimental data.