CERN: 'Climate models will need to be substantially revised'

The Register ^ | 25th August 2011 | Andrew Orlowski

[magellan]

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.

[snip]

Climate models will have to be revised, confirms CERN in supporting literature:

"[I]t is clear that the treatment of aerosol formation in climate models will need to be substantially revised, since all models assume that nucleation is caused by these vapours [sulphuric acid and ammonia] and water alone."

[chessplayer]

Another “bombshell” dud.

“Early results seem to indicate that cosmic rays do cause a change. The high-energy protons seemed to enhance the production of nanometre-sized particles from the gaseous atmosphere by more than a factor of ten. But, Kirkby adds, those particles are far too small to serve as seeds for clouds. “At the moment, it actually says nothing about a possible cosmic-ray effect on clouds and climate, but it’s a very important first step,” he says.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/24/breaking-news-cern-experiment-confirms-cosmic-rays-influence-climate-change/

[Bob]

AGW was a hoax from the beginning.

Generally speaking, a hoax is a harmless prank. The scam of AGW is anything but harmless in many ways.

[neverdem]

One way to neuter the EPA is to require them to provide reports on the human and economic impacts of any proposed policy, and then get approval from Congress before implementing it.

As it is, they are specifically excluded from economic impact requirements before dictating environmental policy.

That's a capital idea! It's high time for the EPA to produce economic impact statements for any new regulations that they propose, at the least, cap their budget and then require them to produce economic impact statements for all of their regulations already in effect.

[Gene Eric]

>> Unsurprisingly, it’s a politically sensitive topic,

Algorian meatheads are a threat to the natural progression of science.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks neverdem. The article starts with some snarking, an obvious attempt at spin:

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. ...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.

[DouglasKC]

So the sun affects the climate? Who would have thunk it?