1916. No. I. ARE THE SOLAR CORPL'SCLE RAYS NEGATIVE OR POSITIVE? 13 



a mean spherical diameter of 88° and an area between 3 and 4 times 

 greater than the precipitation ring for the same rays but with 2800 C. G. S. 

 units polar intensit}'. 



If we go to three times greater polar intensity than in the first case, 

 the area of the annular precipitation district will be between 12 and 14 

 times less. 



With rays of 2000 volts and a polar intensity of about 4500 C. G. S. 

 units we find a precipitation ring of mean diameter 45', which exactly 

 corresponds to the auroral zone on the earth. 



The thickness of the zone on the terrella is about 2.5° corresponding 

 to about 280 km. on the earth, so that ordinarily there should be in the 

 auroral zone no simultaneous precipitations of raj's more distant from an- 

 other laterally than about 300 km,, if the corpuscular rays are of uniform 

 stiffness. But as mentioned above it is not only the magnetic intensity 

 that determines the dimensions of the precipitation ring, but equally well 

 the stiffness of the ra3's. 



For corpuscular rays we have, as is well known: 



mv 



where H is the intensity of the magnetic field, o the radius of curvature 

 of the rays, m the mass of the electric particle, c its charge and :- its 

 velocity. 



With a certain kind of rays o will clearly be everywhere for instance 

 three times greater, if H is diminished to a third of its value everywhere 

 in the magnetic field. But if the magnetic field is held constant we can 

 also obtain q three times greater by taking rays which are three times 



stifter, when accordinglv — is three times greater. 



° ' e 



From my experiments I conclude that for the corpuscular solar rays 

 which penetrate into the auroral zone: 



//•^ = 3X10^ (»A. P.« p. 595) 



But I have admitted that H • q is not always the same, but may some- 

 times be as small as one million and sometimes as great as ten millions. 



From the above we see that if a// corpuscular rays should be so little 

 stiff, that //• o = 10'^ there would practically be no solar corpuscle-rays 

 drawn into the earth. But if, on the contrary, H ■ q was always 10' C. G. S. 

 they would penetrate into the atmosphere over an area about 15 times 

 greater then they do now in the present auroral zone, corresponding to 

 ^ ■ Q = 3 ^^ lo"- And what is still more important, the rays would 

 really come quite deep down into the atmosphere. 



