Solar variability influences on weather and climate: Possible connections through cosmic ray fluxes and storm intensification
- Center for Space Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas (US)
- Physics Department, University College Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales (US)
- Center for Space Science and Astronomy, Stanford University, California (US)
The question of the mechanism for solar-variability effects on weather and climate can be separated into (1) the identification of the carrier of the solar variability and (2) the identification of the physical link between the carrier and the meteorological response. The suggestion that galactic cosmic rays (GCR), as modulated by the solar wind, are the carriers of the component of solar variability that affects weather and climate has been discussed in the literatue for 30 years, and considerable evidence for it has now accumulated. Variations of GCR occur with the 11-year solar cycle, matching the time scale of recent results for atmospheric variations, as modulated by the quasi-biennial oscillation of equatorial stratospheric winds (QBO). Variations in GCR occur on the time scale of centuries with a well-defined peak in the coldest decade of the little ice age. Here we present new evidence on the meteorological responses to variations on the time scale of a few days. The occurrence of correlations of GCR and meteorological responses on all three time scales strengthens the hypothesis of GCR as carriers of solar variability to the lower atmosphere. The responses reported here include changes in the vertical temperature profile in the troposphere and lower stratosphere and in the northern hemisphere vorticity area index, associated with Forbush decreases in GCR. The meteorological responses to Forbush decreases are in the opposite sense but otherwise are quite similar to responses that immediately follow solar flares.
- OSTI ID:
- 5125311
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Geophysical Research; (USA), Vol. 94:D12; ISSN 0148-0227
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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