Cosmic Rays, Solar Energetic Particles, and Climate: Where are the Links?
Abstract
The correlation of Earth's climate with the 11 year solar sunspot cycle is difficult to explain with variations of the solar radiative output alone. Recently it has been argued that such climate variations may be due to a modulation of the galactic cosmic ray flux impinging on Earth or due to a modulation of the less energetic solar energetic particles. Such mechanisms are suggested by the surprisingly strong correlation between sunspot numbers and climatic parameters, such as cloudiness. Correlations are of course no proof of causality as long as the detailed mechanisms are not understood. Several mechanisms have been proposed, for example the modulation of the global electric circuit and the modulation of the generation of cloud condensation nuclei (CCNs). Such mechanisms require a sequence of processes to occur, from the modulation of the cosmic ray flux, through the air showers of the atmospheric interaction, the formation of ion pairs, the formation of CCNs, and to the formation of cloud droplets. We are far from understanding these processes, let alone how they interact with each other. In this talk we will outline the beginnings of a interdisciplinary research program that addresses these processes and some initial results.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003AGUFMSH51A..05R
- Keywords:
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- 1620 Climate dynamics (3309);
- 2104 Cosmic rays;
- 2753 Numerical modeling