THE WORLD NEUTRON MONITOR NETWORK AS A TOOL FOR THE STUDY OF SOLAR NEUTRONS

The use of the World Neutron Monitor Network to detect high-energy sol ar neutrons is discussed in detail. It is shown that the existing netw ork can be used for the routine detection of intense sporadic solar-ne utron events whenever they occur. A technique is suggested involving t he weighted summation of responses of separate monitors to solar neutr ons. It is demonstrated that the use of this method improves the signi ficance of solar-neutron event detection. Different results of the sim ulation of the neutron-monitor sensitivity to solar neutrons have been tested with respect to their application for practical use. It is sho wn that the total number of neutrons with energy above 300 MeV injecte d from the Sun during a solar flare can be estimated directly from the time-integrated neutron-monitor response to solar neutrons without an y model assumptions. The estimation technique has been developed.