Letter to the EditorForbush precursory increase and shock-associated particles on 20 October 1989

Abstract. Strong interplanetary disturbances may affect cosmic ray protons tremendously with energies less than 1 GeV, increasing their intensity by hundreds of percents, but they are not so effective for protons of higher energies. This energy limit is crucial to understand processes of cosmic ray propagation and acceleration in the heliosphere. The Forbush pre-increase and the effect of shock-associated particles observed on 20 October 1989 illustrate the problem. This is a rare event, when the energies of shock-associated particles measured by the GOES-7 satellite spread continuously to the neutron monitor energies. The Forbush pre-increase could be attributed to a single reflection of galactic cosmic rays from the magnetic wall observed at 12:00 UT. It had a very hard spectrum with maximum energy of modulation more than 10 GeV. The spectrum of shock-associated particles was soft and their maximum energy was less than 1 GeV. The problem of shock acceleration versus trapping is discussed for the 20 October 1989 event. It is argued that the shock-associated particles were accelerated near the flare site and then propagated to the Earth inside the trap between two magnetic walls at 12:00 UT and 17:00 UT.Key words. Interplanetary physics (cosmic rays; energetic particles; interplanetary magnetic fields)