It has been proposed that galactic cosmic rays may influence the Earth's climate by affecting cloud formation. If changes in cloudiness play a part in climate change, their effect changes sign in Antarctica. Satellite data from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) are here used to calculate the changes in surface temperatures at all latitudes, due to small percentage changes in cloudiness. The results match the observed contrasts in temperature changes, globally and in Antarctica. Evidently clouds do not just respond passively to climate changes but take an active part in the forcing, in accordance with changes in the solar magnetic field that vary the cosmic-ray flux.
Freshwater forcing from a retreating Antarctic Ice Sheet could have a wide range of impacts on future global climate. Here, we report on multi-century (present-2250) climate simulations performed using a fully coupled numerical model integrated under future greenhouse gas emissions scenarios IPCC RCP4.5 and 8.5, with meltwater discharge provided by a dynamic-thermodynamic ice sheet model. Accounting for Antarctica's meltwater contribution raises sub-surface ocean temperatures by 1 C at the ice margin, beyond rates currently projected. In contrast, 2-10 C cooler surface air and ocean temperatur…
The main objection to Speirs, McGowan, Steinhoff and Bromwich [Int. J. Climatol. 33: 945-958] work arises from the lack of analyses of the probability distribution functions of underlying processes leading to wind formation of which velocities are measured by automated weather stations and reported in the paper. Mathematically a rigorous definition of calculating the correlation coefficient (Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient) of averages does not exist. Therefore the authors numbers as given in Table II represent a set of randomly calculated figures. The authors suggestion in rela…
Multiscale Decomposition Reveals Predictable Interannual Variability and Climate Trends in Antarctic Sea Ice Loss
The Alan Turing Institute（艾伦·图灵研究所）；Department of Cyrospheric and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Innsbruck（因斯布鲁克大学冰冻圈与大气科学系）；British Antarctic Survey（英国南极调查局）；Autodesk Research（欧特克研究院）
A very strong period of 3592+-57 yrs in 10Be deposition rates from Vostok ice core raw data was detected and verified against concentration raw data at Taylor Dome and Vostok. Data show Hallstadzeit Solar cycle at 2296+-57 yrs, and indicate LaViolette period at 12500 yrs. The 99% confidence Gauss Vanicek spectral analysis was used, making data alteration avoidable thus enabling data separation that reflected cosmic ray background conditions at Galactic boundary. After the separation only the new period remains and converges, hence it is of extrasolar and Galactic origin. Since dominant spectra…
Observations indicate that the Arctic sea ice cover is rapidly retreating while the Antarctic sea ice cover is steadily expanding. State-of-the-art climate models, by contrast, typically simulate a moderate decrease in both the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice covers. However, in each hemisphere there is a small subset of model simulations that have sea ice trends similar to the observations. Based on this, a number of recent studies have suggested that the models are consistent with the observations in each hemisphere when simulated internal climate variability is taken into account. Here we exam…
Fine-Scale Heterogeneity of Snow Cover in the Antarctic Marginal Ice Zone
The University of Melbourne（墨尔本大学）；Swinburne University of Technology（斯威本科技大学）；University of Tasmania（塔斯马尼亚大学）；University of Cape Town（开普敦大学）；British Antarctic Survey（英国南极调查局）；Bureau of Meteorology（气象局）
Variations in the flux of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) at Earth during the last 4.6 billion years are constructed from information about the Star Formation Rate (SFR) in the Milky Way and the evolution of solar activity. The variations of GCR show a remarkable resemblance to changes in Earth's climate during the period considered, suggesting that Earths climate is closely linked to the evolution of our Milky Way. The link could be significant in the solution of the 'faint sun climate paradox'.
The Antarctic region in which severe ozone depletion has taken place is known as the ozone hole. This region has two basic indicators: the area, where the ozone abundance is low (size), and the quantity of ozone mass deficit (depth). The energetic particles that penetrate deeply into the atmosphere and galactic cosmic rays (GCR) modify the ozone abundance in the stratosphere. With this research project, we are looking for evidence of a connection between variations in the cosmic ray flux and variations in the size of the ozone hole. In addition, we are looking for signs of the kind of processe…
The influence of solar variability on climate is currently uncertain. Recent observations have indicated a possible mechanism via the influence of solar modulated cosmic rays on global cloud cover. Surprisingly the influence of solar variability is strongest in low clouds (<= 3km), which points to a microphysical mechanism involving aerosol formation that is enhanced by ionisation due to cosmic rays. If confirmed it suggests that the average state of the Heliosphere is important for climate on Earth.
The climate impact of ocean gateway openings during the Eocene-Oligocene transition is still under debate. Previous model studies employed grid resolutions at which the impact of mesoscale eddies has to be parameterized. We present results of a state-of-the-art eddy-resolving global ocean model with a closed Drake Passage, and compare with results of the same model at non-eddying resolution. An analysis of the pathways of heat by decomposing the meridional heat transport into eddy, horizontal, and overturning circulation components indicates that the model behavior on the large scale is qualit…
Among the most puzzling questions in climate change is that of solar-climate variability, which has attracted the attention of scientists for more than two centuries. Until recently, even the existence of solar-climate variability has been controversial - perhaps because the observations had largely involved temporary correlations between climate and the sunspot cycle. Over the last few years, however, diverse reconstructions of past climate change have revealed clear associations with cosmic ray variations recorded in cosmogenic isotope archives, providing persuasive evidence for solar or cos…
Evidence of past climate variations are stored in ice and indicate glacial-interglacial cycles characterized by three dominant time periods of 20kyr, 40kyr, and 100kyr. We study the scaling properties of temperature proxy records of four ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland. These series are long-range correlated in the time scales of 1-100kyr. We show that these series are nonlinear as expressed by volatility correlations and a broad multifractal spectrum. We present a stochastic model that captures the scaling and the nonlinear properties observed in the data.
The Late Pleistocene Antarctic temperature variation curve is decomposed into two parts: cyclic and stochastic. These two parts represent different but tightly interconnected processes and also represent two different types of self-organization of the Earth climate system. The self-organization in the cyclic component is the non-linear auto-oscillation reaction of the Earth climate system, as a whole, to the input of solar radiation. The self-organization in the stochastic component is a nonlinear critical process, taking energy from, and fluctuating around the cyclic component of the temperat…
The problem of the contribution of cosmic rays to climate change is a continuing one and one of importance. In principle, at least, the recent results from the CLOUD project at CERN provide information about the role of ionizing particles in 'sensitizing' atmospheric aerosols which might, later, give rise to cloud droplets. Our analysis shows that, although important in cloud physics the results do not lead to the conclusion that cosmic rays affect atmospheric clouds significantly, at least if H2SO4 is the dominant source of aerosols in the atmosphere. An analysis of the very recent studies of…
Based on theoretical and experimental consideration of the first (the Twomey effect) and second indirect aerosol effects the quasianalytic description of physical connection between the galactic cosmic rays intensity and the Earth's cloud cover is obtained. It is shown that the basic equation of the Earth's climate energy-balance model is described by the bifurcation equation (with respect to the temperature of the Earth's surface) in the form of assembly-type catastrophe with the two governing parameters defining the variations of insolation and Earth's magnetic field (or the galactic cosmic …
Current global warming is causing significant changes in snowfall in polar regions, directly impacting the mass balance of the ice caps. The only water supply in Antarctica, precipitation, is poorly estimated from surface measurements. The onboard cloud-profiling radar of the CloudSat satellite provided the first real opportunity to estimate precipitation at continental scale. Based on CloudSat observations, we propose to explore the vertical structure of precipitation in Antarctica over the 2007-2010 period. A first division of this dataset following a topographical approach (continent versus…
The Late Pleistocene Antarctic temperature variation curve is decomposed into two parts: cyclic and stochastic. These two parts represent different but tightly interconnected processes and also represent two different types of self-organization of the Earth's climate system. The self-organization in the cyclic component is the non-linear auto-oscillation reaction of the Earth's climate system, as a whole, to the input of solar radiation. The self-organization in the stochastic component is a nonlinear critical process, taking energy from and fluctuating around, the cyclic component of the temp…
Cloud microphysical parameterizations in atmospheric models describe the formation and evolution of clouds and precipitation, a central weather and climate process. Cloud-associated latent heating is a primary driver of large and small-scale circulations throughout the global atmosphere, and clouds have important interactions with atmospheric radiation. Clouds are ubiquitous, diverse, and can change rapidly. In this work, we build the first emulator of an entire cloud microphysical parameterization, including fast phase changes. The emulator performs well in offline and online (i.e. when coupl…
The energy-balance model of global climate, which is taking into account a nontrivial role of solar and galactic protons, is presented. The model is described by the equation of fold catastrophe relative to increment of temperature, where the variation of a solar insolation and cosmic rays are control parameters. It is shown that the bifurcation equation of the model describes one of two stable states of the climate system. The solution of this equation exhibits the property of the determined bistable behavior of climate at the global level and the possibility of appearance of the determined c…
The Late Pleistocene Antarctic temperature variation curve is decomposed into two components: cyclic and high frequency, stochastic. For each of these components, a mathematical model is developed which shows that the cyclic and stochastic temperature variations are distinct, but interconnected, processes with their own self-organization. To model the cyclic component, a system of ordinary differential equations is written which represent an auto-oscillating, self-organized process with constant period. It is also shown that these equations can be used to model more realistic variations in tem…
Numerous laboratory measurements have provided a sound physical basis for the cosmic-ray driven electron-induced reaction (CRE) mechanism of halogen-containing molecules for the ozone hole. And observed spatial and time correlations between polar ozone loss or stratospheric cooling and cosmic rays have shown strong evidence of the CRE mechanism [Q.-B. Lu, Phys. Rep. 487, 141-167(2010)]. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were also long-known greenhouse gases but were thought to play only a minor role in climate change. However, recent observations have shown evidence of the saturation in greenhouse ef…
The solution of energy-balance model of the Earth global climate and the EPICA Dome C and Vostok experimental data of the Earth surface palaeotemperature evolution over past 420 and 740 kyr are compared. In the framework of proposed bifurcation model (i) the possible sharp warmings of the Dansgaard-Oeschger type during the last glacial period due to stochastic resonance is theoretically argued; (ii) the concept of climatic sensitivity of water in the atmosphere, whose temperature instability has the form of so-called hysteresis loop, is proposed, and based of this concept the time series of gl…
Simultaneous measurements of the small-, intermediate- and large- positive ions and air earth current density made at a coastal station, Maitri at Antarctica during January to February 2005, are reported. Although, small and large positive ion concentrations do not show any systematic diurnal variations, variations in them are almost similar to each other. On the other hand, variations in intermediate positive ion concentrations are independent of variations in the small/large positive ions and exhibit a diurnal variation which is similar to that in atmospheric temperature on fair weather days…
In this paper, we have provided an overview of cosmic ray effects on terrestrial processes such as electrical properties, global electric circuit, lightning, cloud formation, cloud coverage, atmospheric temperature, space weather phenomena, climate, etc. It is suggested that cosmic rays control short term and long term variation in climate. There are many basic phenomena which need further study and require new and long term data set. Some of these have been pointed out.
The quality of ground based astronomical observations are significantly affected by telluric conditions, and the search for best sites has led to the construction of observatories at remote locations, including recent initiatives on the high plateaus of E Antarctica where the calm, dry and cloud free conditions during winter are recognized as amongst the best. Site selection is an important phase of any observatory development project, and candidate sites must be tested with specialized equipment, a process both time consuming and costly. A potential screening of site locations before embarkin…
Our previous results on the connection between the Forbush decreases (FD) of cosmic-ray intensity and the deviations from the expected values of the diurnal temperature range (DTR) are briefly revisited. The same type of analysis is then extended to the cases of sudden increases of cosmic-ray intensity (GLE), as well as to the search for lattitude effects in the observed correlations. We find that all the investigated correlations appear to manifest both the expected signs and the plausible phase relations, though each one only at the modest confidence level. Moreover, it appears that there is…
Global Climate Models are key tools for predicting the future response of the climate system to a variety of natural and anthropogenic forcings. Here we show how to use statistical mechanics to construct operators able to flexibly predict climate change for a variety of climatic variables of interest. We perform our study on a fully coupled model - MPI-ESM v.1.2 - and for the first time we prove the effectiveness of response theory in predicting future climate response to CO$_2$ increase on a vast range of temporal scales, from inter-annual to centennial, and for very diverse climatic quantiti…
A striking correlation has recently been observed between global cloud cover and the flux of incident cosmic rays. The effect of natural variations in the cosmic ray flux is large, causing estimated changes in the Earth's energy radiation balance that are comparable to those attributed to greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution. However a direct link between cosmic rays and cloud formation has not been unambiguously established. We therefore propose to experimentally measure cloud (water droplet) formation under controlled conditions in a test beam at …
We examine the results linking cosmic ray flux (CRF) variations to global climate change. We then proceed to study various periods over which there are estimates for the radiative forcing, temperature change and CRF variations relative to today. These include the Phanerozoic as a whole, the Cretaceous, the Eocene, the Last Glacial Maximum, the 20th century, as well as the 11-yr solar cycle. This enables us to place quantitative limits on climate sensitivity to both changes in the CRF, Phi_CR, and the radiative budget, F, under equilibrium. Under the assumption that the CRF is indeed a climate …
Recent satellite data have revealed a surprising correlation between galactic cosmic ray (GCR) intensity and the fraction of the Earth covered by clouds. If this correlation were to be established by a causal mechanism, it could provide a crucial step in understanding the long-sought mechanism connecting solar and climate variability. The Earth's climate seems to be remarkably sensitive to solar activity, but variations of the Sun's electromagnetic radiation appear to be too small to account for the observed climate variability. However, since the GCR intensity is strongly modulated by the sol…
Paleoclimate data show that climate sensitivity is ~3 deg-C for doubled CO2, including only fast feedback processes. Equilibrium sensitivity, including slower surface albedo feedbacks, is ~6 deg-C for doubled CO2 for the range of climate states between glacial conditions and ice-free Antarctica. Decreasing CO2 was the main cause of a cooling trend that began 50 million years ago, large scale glaciation occurring when CO2 fell to 450 +/- 100 ppm, a level that will be exceeded within decades, barring prompt policy changes. If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civiliza…
This study is focused on the effects of cosmic rays (solar activity) and halogenated molecules (mainly chlorofluorocarbons-CFCs) on atmospheric O3 depletion and global climate change. Brief reviews are first given on the cosmic-ray-driven electron-induced-reaction (CRE) theory for O3 depletion and the warming theory of CFCs for climate change. Then natural and anthropogenic contributions are examined in detail and separated well through in-depth statistical analyses of comprehensive measured datasets. For O3 loss, new statistical analyses of the CRE equation with observed data of total O3 and …
The first opportunity to detect indications for life outside the Solar System may be provided already within the next decade with upcoming missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) and/or the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) mission, searching for atmospheric biosignatures on planets in the habitable zone of cool K- and M-stars. Nevertheless, their harsh stellar radiation and particle environment could lead to photochemical loss of atmospheric biosignatures. We aim to study the influence of cosmic ra…
Evidence is emerging for physical links among clouds, global temperatures, the global atmospheric electrical circuit and cosmic ray ionisation. The global circuit extends throughout the atmosphere from the planetary surface to the lower layers of the ionosphere. Cosmic rays are the principal source of atmospheric ions away from the continental boundary layer: the ions formed permit a vertical conduction current to flow in the fair weather part of the global circuit. Through the (inverse) solar modulation of cosmic rays, the resulting columnar ionisation changes may allow the global circuit to …
It has been proposed that cosmic ray events could have a causal relationship with cloud formation rates. Given the weak constraints on the role that cloud formation plays in climate forcing it is essential to understand the role such a relationship could have in shaping the Earth's climate. This issue has been previously investigated in the context of the long-term effect of cosmic ray events on climate. However, in order to establish whether or not such a relationship exists, measurements of short-timescale solar events, individual cosmic ray events, and spatially correlated cloud parameters …
An oscillation with a period of about 2100-2500 years, the Hallstatt cycle, is found in cosmogenic radioisotopes (C-14 and Be-10) and in paleoclimate records throughout the Holocene. Herein we demonstrate the astronomical origin of this cycle. Namely, this oscillation is coherent to the major stable resonance involving the four Jovian planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - whose period is p=2318 yr. The Hallstatt cycle could derive from the rhythmic variation of the circularity of the solar system disk assuming that this dynamics could eventually modulate the solar wind and, consequen…
Numerous empirical studies have analyzed International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project data and reached contradictory conclusions regarding the influence of solar-modulated galactic cosmic rays on cloud fraction and cloud properties. The Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) instrument on the Terra satellite has been in continuous operation for 13 years and thus provides an independent (and previously unutilized) cloud data set to investigate purported solar-cloud links. Furthermore, unlike many previous solar-climate studies that report cloud fraction MISR measures albedo, which has…
