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A significant correlation between the annual cosmic ray flux and the amount of low clouds has recently been found for the past 20 years. However, of the physical explanations suggested, none has been quantitatively verified in the…
A decrease in the globally averaged low level cloud cover, deduced from the ISCCP infra red data, as the cosmic ray intensity decreased during the solar cycle 22 was observed by two groups. The groups went on to hypothesise that the…
Despite over 35 years of constant satellite-based measurements of cloud, reliable evidence of a long-hypothesized link between changes in solar activity and Earth's cloud cover remains elusive. This work examines evidence of a cosmic ray…
The ionization fraction is an important factor in determining the chemical and physical evolution of star forming regions. In the dense, dark starless cores of such objects, the ionization rate is dominated by cosmic rays; it is therefore…
Low-energy cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal and dynamical evolution. The purpose of this work is to explore the possibility that a low-energy component of…
Recent satellite data have revealed a surprising correlation between galactic cosmic ray (GCR) intensity and the fraction of the Earth covered by clouds. If this correlation were to be established by a causal mechanism, it could provide a…
Diffuse interstellar clouds show large abundances of H_3^+ which can be maintained only by a high ionization rate of H_2. Cosmic rays are the dominant ionization mechanism in this environment, so the large ionization rate implies a high…
The influence of solar variability on climate is currently uncertain. Recent observations have indicated a possible mechanism via the influence of solar modulated cosmic rays on global cloud cover. Surprisingly the influence of solar…
Among the most puzzling questions in climate change is that of solar-climate variability, which has attracted the attention of scientists for more than two centuries. Until recently, even the existence of solar-climate variability has been…
Cosmic rays are usually assumed to be the main ionization agent for the interior of molecular clouds where UV and X-ray photons cannot penetrate. Here we test this hypothesis by limiting ourselves to the case of diffuse clouds and assuming…
Low-energy cosmic rays are the dominant source of ionization for molecular cloud cores. The ionization fraction, in turn, controls the coupling of the magnetic field to the gas and hence the dynamical evolution of the cores. The purpose of…
Cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular and diffuse clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal, and dynamical evolution. The amount of cosmic rays inside a cloud also determines the $\gamma$-ray flux produced by…
Molecular clouds interacting with supernova remnants may be subject to a greatly enhanced irradiation by cosmic rays produced at the shocked interface between the ejecta and the molecular gas. Over the past decade, broad-band observations…
Clouds cast shadows on the surface and locally enhance solar irradiance by absorbing and scattering sunlight, resulting in fast and large solar irradiance fluctuations on the surface. Typical spatiotemporal scales and driving mechanisms of…
Various aspects of the connection between cloud cover (CC) and cosmic rays (CR) are analysed. Many features of this connection indicate that there is no direct causal connection between low cloud cover (LCC) and CR in spite of the evident…
Context: Cosmic rays drive several key processes for the chemistry and dynamical evolution of star-forming regions. Their effect is quantified mainly by means of the cosmic-ray ionisation rate $\zeta_2$. Aims: We aim to obtain a sample of…
Cosmic rays are the only agent able to penetrate into the interior of dense molecular clouds. Depositing (part of) their energy through ionisation, cosmic rays play an essential role in determining the physical and chemical evolution of…
Cosmic-rays constitute the main ionising and heating agent in dense, starless, molecular cloud cores. We reexamine the physical quantities necessary to determine the cosmic-ray ionisation rate (especially the cosmic ray spectrum at E < 1…
Cosmic rays are a global source of ionisation, and the ionisation fraction represents a fundamental parameter in the interstellar medium. Ions couple to magnetic fields, affect the chemistry, and the dynamics of star-forming regions as well…
Molecular clouds act as targets for cosmic rays (CR), revealing their presence through either gamma-ray emission due to proton-proton interactions, and/or through the ionization level in the cloud, produced by the CR flux. The ionization…