Empirical Determination of the Heliocentric Potential using GOES Data

The association between neutron monitor response to galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and the heliocentric potential has long been exploited in evaluating the spectrum of GCR in the vicinity of the earth as it evolves over the course of a solar cycle. It has been observed that the background counting rates of the GOES energetic particle detectors are proportional to neutron monitor observations, and therefore similarly related to the heliocentric potential. The linear relationship of the counting-rate backgrounds of the energetic particle detectors aboard the GOES satellites between different energy channels aboard the same satellite and those of other platforms of the series serve to confirm that those backgrounds are a measure of the galactic cosmic ray flux and their locally produced progeny rather than being the result of detector and instrument noise... It is noted that the high data rates of neutron monitor observations provide data of excellent statistics while the low background data rates (order of 0.5 /s) of the GOES detector channels requires averaging over several hours for good statistical significance, However, in its favor, the correspondence noted between data of different members of the GOES series extending over more that 20 years provides long term consistency. Further,these data are readily available at an appropriate cadence, and provide a viable alternative for determining the heliocentric potential and thereby the local galactic cosmic ray spectrum.