Short and long-term variations in the cosmic ray intensity and their connection with the 5303 Å coronal line intensity in solar cycle No. 20

The cosmic ray modulation in the period 1965.70 is investigated by the comparison of the intensity data of groundbased stations with different response to primaries. The socalled step-like modulation, already observed by other authors, is found to be produced by the overlapping between the quasi-stationary solar cycle modulation and the Forbush decrease events. Moreover a good correlation between the cosmic-ray variance (Forbush decrease index) and the 5303 coronaI intensity at middle heliolatitudes (17.5°+42.5°) is found, while the quasi-stationary solar cycle modulation is well correlated with the 5303 intensity near the solar equator (0°+17.5°). The different time behaviour of the solar activity at different heliolatitudes causes the step-like modulation.