ARE WE SEEING MAGNETIC MONOPOLE COSMIC-RAYS AT E-GREATER-THAN-OR-SIMILAR-TO-10(20) EV

We suggest that the highest energy greater than or similar to 10(20) e V cosmic ray primaries may be relativistic magnetic monopoles. Motivat ions for this hypothesis are twofold: (i) conventional primaries are p roblematic, while monopoles are naturally accelerated to E similar to 10(20) eV by galactic magnetic fields; (ii) the observed highest energ y cosmic ray flux is just below the Parker limit for monopoles. By mat ching the cosmic monopole production mechanism to the observed highest energy cosmic ray Aux we estimate the monopole mass to be less than o r similar to 10(10) GeV.