CERN recently published a paper, the first by the CLOUD project, looking at the effects of ammonia, sulphuric acid and galactic cosmic rays on the nucleation of aerosols in the atmosphere.[1]
This has been seized n as evidence that cosmic rays play a mjor role in the climate by effecting cloud formation, rather than the emission of anthropological greenhouse gases.[2] But does the study actually say that?
Well...no. First of all, the study wasn't even about the formation of clouds in the atmosphere. It was about the formation of aerosol compounds in the atmosphere, which is completely different. Although these play a role in cloud formation, they have to grow much large to form the nucleai that allow clouds to form. The paper is not about what people have claimed.[1]
Furthermore, looking over the last sixty years, there hasn't been any major changes in the level of cosmic rays hitting Earth (other than a short cycle imposed by the sun) [3], and even with the small amount of variation there has been, there has been a negligible effect on the rate of cloud formation.[4]
In other words, not only does the study not say what it is said to say, but what is being claimed doesn't fit with the empirically reality of the situation.
That's...not good.
[1] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v476/n7361/full/nature10343.html
[2] http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/24/breaking-news-cern-experiment-confirms-cosmic-rays-influence-climate-change/
[3] http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2010/2009GL041327.shtml
[4] http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2010/2009GL041327.shtml
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