Read ASAP “The Chilling Stars: The New Theory of Climate Change” by Prof. Henrik Svensmark and Nigel Calder
Circa 1950, scientists confirmed that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a spiral galaxy. Our Sun, a small star, is not fixed in an arm of the spiral, but orbits outside the galaxy’s center, moving from arm to arm, over hundreds of millions of years. The galactic environment of our system actually changes pronouncedly, from age to age. Inside a dense galactic arm, populated with large, short lived stars, there are many star births, and catastrophic star deaths. Our solar system passes through dense arms periodically, and also through the much less dense space between the arms.
Large stars typically “die” in a massive explosion called a super nova. Such stellar explosions result in highly energetic subatomic particles called “cosmic rays.” Cosmic rays are much more frequently encountered, in the dense arms of the galaxy, and of course, near super novae. Two cosmic rays on average zip through your head every second, unobserved by you. If you are reading this at jet cruising altitude, the number is higher. At present, we are located in a minor or spur arm, called Orion. Only within the last 15 years have scientists discovered that these energetic particles, creating cascades of free electrons in the atmosphere, contribute effectively to low cloud formation.
Only within the last 15 years have scientists discovered HOW clouds form! Astounding that it took so long. (What were they working on? Carbon Credit sales, instead)
We know for sure that our Sun itself effectively regulates the flow of cosmic rays reaching the Earth, through the Sun’s magnetosphere, which extends far beyond the planetary orbits. When the Sun is magnetically active (sunspot maxima) cosmic rays are more often deflected from reaching Earth. There is a well known 11 year sunspot cycle, highly correlated with the temperature of Earth’s atmosphere. There are more cycles, clearly correlating Earth’s temperature and solar activity. At a sunspot minima, more cosmic rays interact with our atmosphere, resulting in more formation of low clouds, over vast areas of the Earth. The upper aspect of low clouds is highly reflective, like the ice of Antarctica. Low clouds reflect most of the Sun’s energy which otherwise would be absorbed by the ocean or the land mass at the surface. Sunspot activity can also slow dramatically for long periods. A very recent such period, prior to 1725, is called the Maunder Sunspot Minimum. It is also called the “Little Ice Age.” They are intimately related. With the Sun’s magnetic activity at a prolonged null, more cosmic rays interacted with Earth’s atmosphere creating more low clouds, and Earth’s atmosphere was cooled, fast. When the Sun became magnetically active again, low cloud formation slowed, and the atmosphere warmed.
Carbon dioxide comes mostly from the ocean, to a large extent generated by sea life. When the ocean warms, carbon dioxide normally dissolved in sea water is forced into the atmosphere. The temperature of the ocean is slow to change, because it is so massive, and also because water takes more energy to heat than does the same mass of atmosphere. Hundreds of years after a major reversal in solar activity, ocean temperature follows. So does carbon dioxide. Human activity generates a tiny fraction of the carbon dioxide which the ocean periodically takes up, or gives off, depending on its temperature. The carbon dioxide content of our atmosphere is a result of ocean temperature, much more than a cause.
If you want a clear explanation of all this and much more, read “The Chilling Stars” by Prof. Henrik Svensmark and Nigel Calder, or watch “The Great Global Warming Swindle” at http://www.rightalk.com . There is still much more to learn; climatology is practically a reborn science, as a result of the recent research of Svensmark and others!
