Establishing clear evidence of solar-induced lower atmosphere effects is hampered by the small 11-year solar cycle responses, typically swamped by meteorological variability. Strong 27-day cyclic changes are exploited here instead. During the 2007/8 minimum in solar activity, regular 27-day lighthouse-like sweeps of energetic particles crossed the heliosphere and Earth, followed by a burst of solar ultraviolet radiation. Averaging the atmospheric responses at UK sites reveals immediate cooling in the troposphere after the peak energetic particle flux, followed by warming in the stratosphere. Regionally, this is accompanied by zonal wind changes, and temperature changes beneath cloud at the same time. Of two possible rapid distinct routes of solar influence—photochemical (through ozone) and atmospheric electrical (through low level clouds)—the ozone route does not provide a phase-locked response but the electrical route is supported by observed phase-locked thickening of low level clouds. These findings have potential value to weather forecasting.
Rapid indirect solar responses observed in the lower atmosphere
Published 2020 in Proceedings of the Royal Society A
ABSTRACT
PUBLICATION RECORD
- Publication year
2020
- Venue
Proceedings of the Royal Society A
- Publication date
2020-09-01
- Fields of study
Physics, Environmental Science
- Identifiers
- External record
- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar
CITATION MAP
EXTRACTION MAP
CLAIMS
- No claims are published for this paper.
CONCEPTS
- No concepts are published for this paper.
REFERENCES
Showing 1-33 of 33 references · Page 1 of 1
CITED BY
Showing 1-12 of 12 citing papers · Page 1 of 1