Cosmic Rays Did It

Posted on 27 April 2010 by E.M.Smith

It’s Not About People

When will we learn we are not the center of the universe?

A nicely done video that ties together the most important causalities in real climate change on earth. It comes in several segments, but is well worth watching.

About E.M.Smith

A technical managerial sort interested in things from Stonehenge to computer science. My present "hot buttons' are the mythology of Climate Change and ancient metrology; but things change...
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7 Responses to Cosmic Rays Did It

  1. Pingback: TWAWKI » The climate crumbles

  2. Leonard Weinstein says:
    28 April 2010 at 5:08 am

    I do not get the claim that we rotate around our galaxy at a different rate than the galaxy rotates. This would be required to make us pass through the different arms about every 150MY. There is some small drift, but our Solar system is moving along with the overall rotation. There may be other causes for variation of cosmic rays, such as drifting up and down across the mid plane of the galaxy, but that is not what was shown.

  3. Leonard Weinstein says:
    28 April 2010 at 5:34 am

    I want to state that the actual variation in cosmic rays and its relation to climate is convincing to me, the issue I brought up is why there is the variation.

  4. E.M.Smith says:
    28 April 2010 at 8:57 am

    @Leonard Weinstein:

    Yeah, that threw me for a while too when I first ran into it some years ago. The video is not real clear on how that works either.

    The basic ‘missing piece’ is that the spiral arm is a density artifact not the physical motion of a pack of constant stars. In essence, there is a wave of compressed density that travels through the stars rather than the arm being one batch of stars and us being a different batch.

    It is just like the ‘peristaltic waves’ in traffic jams. The cars stop, then start moving and separate, then further down the road it gets slow again and everyone compresses to a stop.

    The same thing is what is happening in the spiral arms. The gravity of the center of the mass of stars slows down the leaders and accelerates the laggards. They “bunch up” and that is an “arm”. But they are not static in that state and the “arm” of maximum density continues to propagate through the stars. But during that increased density phase there are more interactions, more compression of dust clouds, etc.

    So when we are in the low density areas, we’re spread out and not getting as much of a cosmic ray dose from nearby stars. When we’re in the high density areas, we’re crammed up close and personal with many more stars and with many more cosmic ray sources.

    Hopefully that was clear…

    Star formation triggered by spiral arm shock:

    http://www.springerlink.com/content/w230458003173523/

  5. Keith Hill says:
    4 May 2010 at 1:52 am

    What a pity this work can’t get similar exposure to Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth”. Whether the theory is right or wrong it is a far more convincing explanation for climate change than anything offered by the IPCC. It is incredible that so many supposedly intelligent scientists seemingly can virtually ignore the role of the Sun and clouds as two of most important factors affecting our climate and that so many people are gullible enough to swallow their theory of AGW allegedly caused by minor greenhouse gases!

    I’m heartened at the work being done by so many good scientists on the big picture, the dynamics of the universe and our galaxy in particular and their influences on clouds, ocean currents, decadel oscillations and other significant factors driving our climate.

    However, it is laughable that here in Australia, as highlighted on a very recent TV program, we have navel-gazing “scientists” wasting money measuring the burp and fart “emissions” from sad-looking sheep penned in a clear plastic tent hooked up by tubes to various instruments, trying to find out which breed emits the most methane.

    “Planet-saving”work on a grand scale here in good ol’ OZ!

  6. E.M.Smith says:
    4 May 2010 at 10:53 am

    @Keith Hill:

    Maybe we ought to be developing “high gas” breeds and “plumbing” them with gas tight diapers to power our heaters and generators?

    “Save the Planet! … Light a Fart Today!”… ;-)

  7. calderup says:
    9 May 2010 at 11:33 pm

    For the latest on the cosmic-ray/climate story try my new blog http://calderup.wordpress.com
    Nigel Calder

    REPLY: [ Looks like interesting stuff. -E.M.Smith ]

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