SOLAR CYCLES AND COSMIC RADIATION

Solar cycles and cosmic radiation are an under-appreciated mechanisms for influencing the earth's atmosphere and climate. The default position of many within the climate and environmental science community is to consider only processes within the earth system itself.

While the earth is very much a complex system, with physical, biological and chemical processes working on many different time scales. It is fundamentally flawed to study the earth in a vacuum and ignore the solar system, or even the larger universe, which this planet is just one small part. It is more accurate to describe and study the earth as an "open" system, which is affected by energy and matter from outside the planet. It is well know that solar radiation is not constant through time, with variable short and long period cycles. It is also know that cosmic radiation continually hits the earth. Given the amount of energy hitting the earth is not at all constant through time, due to variable orbital cycles, solar output, or even cosmic radiation outside the solar system - it seems quite reasonable to consider the hypothesis that such variable energy may be responsible for climate change. Further, these changes in radiation reaching the earth and their interaction with the atmosphere maybe even more important than internal changes within the earth itself such as changes in greenhouse gas concentrations.