[Campion]

It's not "gamma rays" but "cosmic rays". Gamma rays are photons, like light or radio waves. Cosmic "rays" are charged high-energy particles, mostly nuclei of light to slightly-heavier atoms.

Sunspots are caused by magnetic field changes on the sun. Those field changes also tend to shield us from cosmic rays. (Cosmic rays are charged, remember, and charged particles will change their path in a magnetic field.) More sunspots, less cosmic rays. Less sunspots, more cosmic rays.

What the CERN guys have shown is that cosmic rays cause particles to form in the upper atmosphere that seed cloud formation. More clouds increase the earth's "albedo" (reflectivity), lowering surface temperature (b/c more solar radiation is reflected back into space).

Now the progression is:

more sunspots -> fewer cosmic rays -> fewer clouds -> warmer earth

less sunspots -> more cosmic rays -> more clouds -> cooler earth

It's been known for some time that more sunspots seemed to correlate to a warmer climate. This science explains why.

[caww]

Thank you....good info when going up against the carbon idiots!

[justa-hairyape]

And I thought mass could not travel at the speed of light. So particles with mass are entering our solar system after being emitted millions of light years away ? Thought they were just pure energy. Thanks for the info. Will research it later.

The affects from cosmic rays are not the primary climate change driver. Not all condensation is caused by cosmic rays. And the cosmic ray effect itself is perhaps one in a series of amplifiers that modify solar emissions changes before they enter the Earth's atmosphere. For example, the AGW proponents have stated that visible light does not change enough to cause significant affect on our climate. Well, we now how discovered one amplification mechanism. So less visible light combined with more clouds equals significant climate changes.

Visible light was always just a part of the spectral picture. There is also infrared and UV light. Without an atmosphere the UV light emission from the sun would destroy all life on this planet just by itself. And NASA has shown significant changes in UV light emission during changes in solar activity. Of course you could not get anyone from NASA or the Ozone Hole crowd to even consider such possibilities 15 years ago.

[justa-hairyape]

Okay. Just watched the Nir Shaviv on the WUWT thread that
Ernestatthebeach linked above. These cosmic rays are generated by stars within our Milky Way that go super nova. So these particles of cosmic rays are traveling thousands of light years to our solar system. All I can say is these super nova must be generating a lot of rays when they explode. Hard to fathom that we have so many traveling within the Milky Way galaxy.