Artificial Atmospheric Ionization:

Galactic cosmic rays have been positively correlated to the Earth’s low cloud cover. It is now evident that cosmic ray ionization is linked to lowering nucleation barriers and promoting early charged particle growth into the Aitken range. There is a substantially high probability that some of the charged particles grow to the 100 nm range and beyond to become CCN. There is also evidence that electrically charged aerosol are more efficiently scavenged by cloud droplets, some of which evaporate producing evaporation aerosol, which are very effective ice formation nuclei. The assumption is made that artificially generated, corona effect ionization should act in much the same way as cosmic ray ionization, with some differences that might make unipolar corona effect ionization a more powerful catalyzer of cloud microphysical processes and, consequently, climate. There is much further work required to understand the cause and effect relationship between artificial ionization and weather, including electrical, chemical and physical measurements at the nanoparticle level and beyond, as well as mathematical modeling to describe the observed, measured or hypothesized atmospheric phenomena at different levels of artificial ionization, and, hopefully equal levels of cosmic ray ionization. Introduction: Cosmic Rays and Cloud Processes In 1997 Svensmark and Friis-Christensen reported a correlation between cosmic rays and cloud cover (1). They found that the observed variation of 3 – 4% of the global cloud cover during the recent solar cycle is strongly correlated with cosmic ray flux. This was hailed by some as the key to the mystery of how the sun affected climate and produced climactic changes. It was also a confirmation of the long standing suspicion that cosmic rays were linked to global cloudiness. Numerous articles followed studying the catalytic effects of ions from cosmic rays on microphysical cloud processes and cloud cover. Of particular interest is the observation from recent satellite data, that cosmic ray-cloud correlation is much more intense in low level clouds than in high level ones. More cosmic rays correlate to more low level clouds (altitudes of less than 3 km) and lower temperatures (1). Low clouds exert a large net cooling effect on the climate. Therefore, greater cosmic ray intensity translates to more cloud cover and cooler temperatures. The link between global low cloud amounts and cosmic ray intensity has been published in the U.S. by Marsden and Lingenfelter who say: “The observed correlation between global low cloud amount and the flux of high energy cosmic rays supports the idea that ionization plays a crucial role in tropospheric cloud formation”. (3) Cosmic ray flux variability is not limited to a solar cycle. Although the energy input from cosmic rays is tiny, as the dominant source of ionizing particle radiation, they have a profound effect on many atmospheric processes. Through interaction with air nuclei they generate isotopes such as Be and C, which is the basis for Carbon dating and reconstructing past changes of cosmic ray activity. The model of open solar flux has been analyzed, together with data from archives recording Be concentration in ice cores and C rings on trees and a strong correlation has been observed (2). From those observations, it has been established that cosmic ray intensity declined about 15% during the 20 century, roughly about the same variation as the last solar cycle, as can be seen in figure 2.