Solar Effects On The Stratosphere

[ZONE 51]

Hi, with great interest i would like to know..

How solar min/max effect the stratosphere and the troposphere? Thanks.

[Iceni]

Hi, with great interest i would like to know..

How solar min/max effect the stratosphere and the troposphere? Thanks.

Prof. Jasper Kirkby working at CERN on the CLOUD experiment is about to publish his results after 6 years of research… I was searching Net Weather to see whether these exciting developments have been discussed and your post seemed the most appropriate place to mention them.

http://cloud.web.cer...ud_proposal.pdf

Here's a taster:

In 1997 Svensmark and Friis-Christensen [1] announced a surprising discovery that global

cloud cover correlates closely with the galactic cosmic ray intensity, which varies with

the sunspot cycle. Although clouds retain some of the Earth’s warmth, for most types of

cloud this is more than compensated by an increased reflective loss of the Sun’s radiation

back into space. So more clouds in general mean a cooler climate—and fewer clouds

mean global warming. The Earth is partly shielded from cosmic rays by the magnetic

disturbances carried by the solar wind. When the solar wind is strong, at the peak of

the 11-year sunspot cycle, fewer cosmic rays reach the Earth. The observed variation of

cloud cover was only a few per cent over the course of a sunspot cycle. Although this

may appear to be quite small, the possible long-term consequences on the global radiation

energy budget are not.

and

The essential approach of CLOUD is to test the link between cosmic rays and cloud

formation under controlled laboratory conditions in a particle beam, which provides an

adjustable and collimated source of “cosmic raysâ€. The detector is based on an expansion

cloud chamber that is designed to duplicate atmospheric conditions. This requires the

capability of producing the very low water vapour supersaturations10 —typically a few

tenths of a percent—found in clouds, so that the precise cloud-forming properties of the

air parcel under study can be measured.

[BrickFielder]

Increased cloud due to cosmic ray variations as mentioned above is one method that the solar activity can affect the weather. I some how doubt that it is the major solar factor afecting the stratosphere. I have seen some discussions on whether UV levels affect absorbtion of energy through the straosphere and also can affect levels of ozone in the stratosphere. Remeber ozone transports have a big impact on stratospheric conditions. Here is a link to a paper discussing some of these issues.

ftp://ftp.lpl.arizona.edu/pub/lpl/lon/stratosphere/hood04agu.pdf

One area which has not really been well explored yet is the affects of solar activity on levels above the stratosphere and whether those changes can affect the propagation of gravity waves into planetary waves. What I think I am suggesting here is that solar activity induced waves in the very top most layers of the atmosphere can have an impact on whether stratospheric warmings either occur or are weakened. Here is a link to a paper which sort of covers this subject, but I have lost the link to the NASA modelling system for levels above the stratosphere which perhaps came to more robust conclusions.

http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/31/63/46/PDF/angeo-16-69-1998.pdf

Another solar affect is through the strength of the QBO which again has impacts on the stratosphere and weather gravity waves are likely to cause upward planetary waves are to propogate. In simple terms this is whether the triggers for stratospheric warmings actually cause a warming.

ftp://ftp.lpl.arizona.edu/pub/lpl/lon/stratosphere/mccormack07jgr.pdf