Does cosmic radiation significantly affect earth's climate?

Background

Earth's atmosphere is bombarded by high energy particles from other galaxies called cosmic rays. An interesting theory is that when these particles hit Earth, they help form the type of clouds that reflect sunlight back into space, cooling the atmosphere. Since we know that the Sun forms a shield limiting the amount of cosmic radiation hitting the earth, the theory would imply that when the Sun is stronger, we'd have less cooling clouds, making the atmosphere hotter.

Implications to Other Questions

Is global warming caused primarily by humans?

Experts

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Agree

Experts In Science

S. Fred Singer Head of NIPCC, Astrophysics Professor

Agree

Empirical evidence suggests very strongly that the main cause of warming and cooling on a decadal scale derives from solar activity via its modulation of cosmic rays that in turn affect atmospheric cloudiness.

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02 Mar 2008 Source

Jasper Kirkby Particle Physicist

Mostly Agree

[Sun and cosmic rays] will probably be able to account for somewhere between a half and the whole of the increase in the Earth's temperature that we have seen in the last century.

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23 Feb 2007 Source

Neutral

Experts In Climatology

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Scientific Body formed by U.N.

Neutral

The effects of galactic cosmic rays on the atmosphere (via cloud nucleation) and those due to shifts in the solar spectrum towards the ultraviolet (UV) range, at times of high solar activity, are largely unknown. The latter may produce changes in tropospheric circulation via changes in static stability resulting from the interaction of the increased UV radiation with stratospheric ozone.

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01 Jan 2008 Source

Disagree

Experts In Climatology

Gavin Schmidt Climatologist

Disagree

...we've seen over the last 30 years. There has been no trend in cosmic rays. So any change that there might have been because of cosmic ray impacts on climate can't possibly have an impact on what's been going on... ... [it sounds like a real scientific argument] but it's bogus and you're being led astray.

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22 Mar 2007 Source

Jón Egill Kristjánsson Climatology Professor

Disagree

I think that as a factor in climate change, it's pretty clear that we don't have any indication at this point that [cosmic rays] are important at all.

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18 Apr 2008 Source

Encyclopedia

Wikipedia World's Largest Encyclopedia

Disagree

[A] hypothesis is that magnetic activity of the sun deflects cosmic rays that may influence the generation of cloud condensation nuclei and thereby affect the climate. Other research has found no relation between warming in recent decades and cosmic rays. The influence of cosmic rays on cloud cover is two orders of magnitude lower than needed to explain the observed changes in clouds, and is not a significant contributor to present global warming.

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27 Apr 2009 Source

Comments

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