Low Latitude Lightning Activity Responses to Cosmic Ray Forbush Decreases

Zhang, Liang; Tinsley, Brian A.; Zhou, Limin

doi:10.1029/2020gl087024

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…There are some indications that an increase in the flux of cosmic rays can lead to an increase in lightning activity on earth [43,44] and thus change the natural ELF electromagnetic background. As noted in [28], changing the electromagnetic background poses a twofold challenge to us: weakening the immune system due to constant stress and more severe illnesses, since electromagnetic fields can stimulate bacterial growth and increase their resistance to antibiotics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What sunspots are whispering about covid-19?

Morchiladze,

Silagadze,

Silagadze

2021

Preprint

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Several studies point to the antimicrobial effects of ELF electromagnetic fields.Such fields have accompanied life from the very beginning, and it is possible that they played a significant role in its emergence and evolution. However, the literature on the biological effects of ELF electromagnetic fields is controversial, and we still lack an understanding of the complex mechanisms that make such effects, observed in many experiments, possible. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how fragile we are in the face of powerful processes operating in the biosphere. We believe that understanding the role of ELF electromagnetic fields in regulating the biosphere is important in our fight against and research in this direction should be intensified.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What sunspots are whispering about covid-19?

Morchiladze,

Silagadze,

Silagadze

2021

Preprint

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“…In particular, Tinsley et al have argued that GCRs interact with the climate by influencing the Global Electrical Circuit [81][82][83]. This builds on some of Ney's (1959) [374] GCRs and the climate through the intermediary of the Global Electric Circuit, e.g., [81][82][83][84][85]. Others have also provided independent analysis that is somewhat consistent with such mechanisms [70,387,393,407].…”

Section: Galactic Cosmic Ray-driven Amplification Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Meanwhile, other reviews and articles over this period have either been undecided, or else argued for significant but subtle effects of solar variability on climate change. For example: Labitzke and van Loon [65][66][67]; Beer et al (2000) [68]; Reid (2000) [69]; Carslaw et al (2002) [70]; Ruzmaikin et al [71][72][73][74][75]; Salby and Callaghan (2006) [76][77][78]; Kirkby (2007) [79]; de Jager et al (2010) [80]; Tinsley et al [81][82][83][84][85]; Dobrica et al [86][87][88][89]; Blanter et al (2012) [90]; van Loon et al [91][92][93]; Roy et al [94][95][96][97]; Lopes et al (2017) [98]; Pan et al (2020) [99].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How much has the Sun influenced Northern Hemisphere temperature trends? An ongoing debate

Connolly¹,

Soon²,

Connolly³

et al. 2021

Res. Astron. Astrophys.

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In order to evaluate how much Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) has influenced Northern Hemisphere surface air temperature trends, it is important to have reliable estimates of both quantities. Sixteen different estimates of the changes in TSI since at least the 19th century were compiled from the literature. Half of these estimates are “low variability” and half are “high variability”. Meanwhile, five largely-independent methods for estimating Northern Hemisphere temperature trends were evaluated using: 1) only rural weather stations; 2) all available stations whether urban or rural (the standard approach); 3) only sea surface temperatures; 4) tree-ring widths as temperature proxies; 5) glacier length records as temperature proxies. The standard estimates which use urban as well as rural stations were somewhat anomalous as they implied a much greater warming in recent decades than the other estimates, suggesting that urbanization bias might still be a problem in current global temperature datasets – despite the conclusions of some earlier studies. Nonetheless, all five estimates confirm that it is currently warmer than the late 19th century, i.e., there has been some “global warming” since the 19th century. For each of the five estimates of Northern Hemisphere temperatures, the contribution from direct solar forcing for all sixteen estimates of TSI was evaluated using simple linear least-squares fitting. The role of human activity on recent warming was then calculated by fitting the residuals to the UN IPCC’s recommended “anthropogenic forcings” time series. For all five Northern Hemisphere temperature series, different TSI estimates suggest everything from no role for the Sun in recent decades (implying that recent global warming is mostly human-caused) to most of the recent global warming being due to changes in solar activity (that is, that recent global warming is mostly natural). It appears that previous studies (including the most recent IPCC reports) which had prematurely concluded the former, had done so because they failed to adequately consider all the relevant estimates of TSI and/or to satisfactorily address the uncertainties still associated with Northern Hemisphere temperature trend estimates. Therefore, several recommendations on how the scientific community can more satisfactorily resolve these issues are provided.

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“…Okike and Umahi (2019) defined the FD onset as the time when the cosmic rays reduction is maximum. In another two studies, applying Space Weather 10.1029/2023SW003852 the SEA to the lightning data from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on board the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Satellite from 1998 to 2014, Wu et al (2019) and Zhang et al (2020) found a lightning activity decrease of 65% and 10%, respectively, after 3 days of the FDs onset. In these studies, the FD onset was defined as the start of the decrease of the cosmic ray flux.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The percentile difference between these two studies could be due to the number of FDs analyzed. Wu et al (2019) analyzed 28 FD andZhang et al (2020) 70 FDs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Forbush Decreases on the Global Electric Circuit

Tacza,

Li,

Raulin

2024

Space Weather

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The suppression of high‐energy cosmic rays, known as Forbush decreases (FDs), represents a promising factor in influencing the global electric circuit (GEC) system. Researchers have delved into these effects by examining variations, often disruptive, of the potential gradient (PG) in ground‐based measurements taken in fair weather regions. In this paper, we aim to investigate deviations observed in the diurnal curve of the PG, as compared to the mean values derived from fair weather conditions, during both mild and strong Forbush decreases. Unlike the traditional classification of FDs, which are based on ground level neutron monitor data, we classify FDs using measurements of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS‐02) on the International Space Station. To conduct our analysis, we employ the superposed epoch method, focusing on PGs collected between January 2010 and December 2019 at a specific station situated at a low latitude and high altitude: the Complejo Astronómico El Leoncito (CASLEO) in Argentina (31.78°S, 2,550 m above sea level). Our findings reveal that for events associated with FDs having flux amplitude (A) decrease ≤10%, no significant change in the PG is observed. However, for FDs with A > 10%, a clear increase in the PG is seen. For these A > 10% events, we also find a good correlation between the variation of Dst and Kp indices and the variation of PG.

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Low Latitude Lightning Activity Responses to Cosmic Ray Forbush Decreases

Cited by 5 publications

References 37 publications

What sunspots are whispering about covid-19?

What sunspots are whispering about covid-19?

How much has the Sun influenced Northern Hemisphere temperature trends? An ongoing debate

Effects of Forbush Decreases on the Global Electric Circuit

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