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Forbush decrease

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A Forbush decrease is a decrease in solar cosmic ray intensity following a solar flare. They are observed about a day after solar flare activity, and occur due to the solar wind with its entrained magnetic field sweeping some of the galactic cosmic rays outwards, away from the Sun and Earth.

The overall or average rate of Forbush decreases tends to follow the 11-year sunspot.

The term Forbush decrease was named after the American physicist Scott E. Forbush, who studied cosmic rays in the 1930s and 1940s.

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