Politics
Out of context: Reply #15904
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CERN: 'Climate models will need to be substantially revised'
New atomsmasher research into cloud formation
http://www.theregister.co.uk/201…CERN's 8,000 scientists may not be able to find the hypothetical Higgs boson, but they have made an important contribution to climate physics, prompting climate models to be revised.
The first results from the lab's CLOUD ("Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets") experiment published in Nature today confirm that cosmic rays spur the formation of clouds through ion-induced nucleation. Current thinking posits that half of the Earth's clouds are formed through nucleation. The paper is entitled Role of sulphuric acid, ammonia and galactic cosmic rays in atmospheric aerosol nucleation.
This has significant implications for climate science because water vapour and clouds play a large role in determining global temperatures. Tiny changes in overall cloud cover can result in relatively large temperature changes.
Unsurprisingly, it's a politically sensitive topic, as it provides support for a "heliocentric" rather than "anthropogenic" approach to climate change: the sun plays a large role in modulating the quantity of cosmic rays reaching the upper atmosphere of the Earth.
- Oops, that kind of puts a little dent into the entire "global warming" thing dunnit?********
- http://press.web.cer…********
- It's not even the most important new piece of data added to the models this year.zarkonite
- Oops, that kind of puts a little dent into the entire "global warming" thing dunnit?