Influence of Solar Minimum on Cosmic Ray Flux, Mutations in viruses and Pandemics Like COVID-19

The cosmic-ray diurnal variation has been observed with scintillator telescopes at a depth of 40 m.w.e. at Chacaltaya, Bolivia, since the last solar maximum, and at the same depth near Albuquerque, New Mexico, since the last solar minimum. During the solar maximum from 1958 to 1960 the amplitude of the diurnal variation was 0.3% for the Chacaltaya telescopes, but at solar minimum early in 1965 it was as low as 0.05%. Since that time, the amplitude has been steadily increasing, and it is now between 0.1% and 0.2% at both the Bolivia and the New Mexico stations.The telescopes measure the cosmic-ray flux from the north, south, east, and west directions, as well as from the vertical; and the various observed times of the diurnal maximum for these directions confirm the extraterrestrial nature of the anisotropy. The maximum occurs at approximately 15 h local solar time in the vertical telescopes. A study of the asymptotic directions of these telescopes for differing primary energies, and of the behavior of the phases of the diurnal variation at the two stations, gives indications of the energies of the primary particles responsible for the diurnal variation. The results are compared with the models of Axford and of Ahluwalia and Dessler.

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Cosmic rays, aerosol formation and cloud-condensation nuclei: sensitivities to model uncertainties

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-11-4001-2011 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 4001-4013 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

E. J. Snow-Kropla ◽

J. R. Pierce ◽

D. M. Westervelt ◽

W. Trivitayanurak

Keyword(s):

Cosmic Rays ◽

Solar Minimum ◽

Solar Maximum ◽

Cloud Condensation Nuclei ◽

Cosmic Ray ◽

Organic Aerosol ◽

Test Cases ◽

Primary Emissions ◽

Cosmic Ray Flux ◽

Aerosol Properties

Abstract. The flux of cosmic rays to the atmosphere has been reported to correlate with cloud and aerosol properties. One proposed mechanism for these correlations is the "ion-aerosol clear-air" mechanism where the cosmic rays modulate atmospheric ion concentrations, ion-induced nucleation of aerosols and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations. We use a global chemical transport model with online aerosol microphysics to explore the dependence of CCN concentrations on the cosmic-ray flux. Expanding upon previous work, we test the sensitivity of the cosmic-ray/CCN connection to several uncertain parameters in the model including primary emissions, Secondary Organic Aerosol (SOA) condensation and charge-enhanced condensational growth. The sensitivity of CCN to cosmic rays increases when simulations are run with decreased primary emissions, but show location-dependent behavior from increased amounts of secondary organic aerosol and charge-enhanced growth. For all test cases, the change in the concentration of particles larger than 80 nm between solar minimum (high cosmic ray flux) and solar maximum (low cosmic ray flux) simulations is less than 0.2 %. The change in the total number of particles larger than 10 nm was larger, but always less than 1 %. The simulated change in the column-integrated Ångström exponent was negligible for all test cases. Additionally, we test the predicted aerosol sensitivity to week-long Forbush decreases of cosmic rays and find that the maximum change in aerosol properties for these cases is similar to steady-state aerosol differences between the solar maximum and solar minimum. These results provide evidence that the effect of cosmic rays on CCN and clouds through the ion-aerosol clear-sky mechanism is limited by dampening from aerosol processes.

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Influence of Solar Minimum on Cosmic Ray Flux, Mutations in viruses and Pandemics like COVID-19

10.31219/osf.io/puqvz ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Rajagopal Kamath ◽

Charunayan Kamath R

Keyword(s):

Solar Minimum ◽

Cosmic Ray ◽

The Sun ◽

The Earth ◽

Solar Cycle 24 ◽

Sun Spots ◽

Cycle 24 ◽

Almost All ◽

Interdisciplinary Study ◽

Cosmic Ray Flux

This interdisciplinary study takes into account the effect of the cosmic ray flux on mutations in viruses that result in virulent forms that lead to the occurrence of pandemics. Solar minimum, the reduction in the activity of the Sun which occurs cyclically every 11 years and deep solar minimum that occurs once in a century or so, results in increased cosmic ray flux to the Earth, which in turn generate mutations in viruses harboured in bats and other nocturnal animals. Almost all the previous pandemics occurred during solar minimum years when the Sun spots were lowest or absent and when the solar activity was at the lowest.This study suggests that the present Covid 19 pandemic is triggered by the mutated viromes in bats from latitudes above 30 degrees N. The increase in cosmic ray flux during the solar minimum of solar cycle 24 has contributed to this. It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of a related SARS-CoV-like coronavirus. This study indicates that SARS CoV 2 emerged as a result of biological and astrophysical processes.

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Directional measurements of the cosmic-ray daily variation at a vertical depth of 60 m.w.e. in London

Canadian Journal of Physics ◽

10.1139/p68-352 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 46 (10) ◽

pp. S788-S793 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

D. S. Peacock ◽

J. C. Dutt ◽

T. Thambyahpillai

Keyword(s):

Solar Minimum ◽

Daily Variation ◽

Vertical Direction ◽

Cosmic Ray ◽

The Sun ◽

Statistical Accuracy ◽

Daily Variations ◽

The Earth ◽

Cosmic Ray Flux ◽

Very High

Semicubical telescopes pointing in the vertical direction and inclined cubical telescopes pointing in the east and north directions have been employed to measure the cosmic-ray daily variation at an underground site in London. Although the statistical accuracy of the measured daily variations is not very high, there are strong indications that during 1965, which was the year of maximum cosmic-ray flux associated with the last solar minimum, tire upper limiting rigidity of the corotation anisotropy (with time of maximum at 1800 h) was reduced to such low values that a Compton–Getting effect due to the motion of the earth around the sun became observable. Also, the atmospheric contribution to the measured solar daily variations appears to be very small. There is no evidence for an enhancement of the observable sidereal daily variation associated with the lowering of the upper limiting rigidity of the corotation anisotropy.

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Cosmic rays, aerosol formation and cloud-condensation nuclei: sensitivities to model uncertainties

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ◽

10.5194/acpd-11-2697-2011 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 2697-2732 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

E. J. Snow-Kropla ◽

J. R. Pierce ◽

D. M. Westervelt ◽

W. Trivitayanurak

Keyword(s):

Cosmic Rays ◽

Solar Minimum ◽

Solar Maximum ◽

Cloud Condensation Nuclei ◽

Cosmic Ray ◽

Organic Aerosol ◽

Test Cases ◽

Primary Emissions ◽

Cosmic Ray Flux ◽

Aerosol Properties

Abstract. The flux of cosmic rays to the atmosphere has been observed to correlate with cloud and aerosol properties. One proposed mechanism for these correlations is the "ion-aerosol clear-air" mechanism where the cosmic rays modulate atmospheric ion concentrations, ion-induced nucleation of aerosols and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations. We use a global chemical transport model with online aerosol microphysics to explore the dependence of CCN concentrations on the cosmic-ray flux. Expanding upon previous work, we test the sensitivity of the cosmic-ray/CCN connection to several uncertain parameters in the model including primary emissions, Secondary Organic Aerosol (SOA) condensation and charge-enhanced condensational growth. The sensitivity of CCN to cosmic rays increases when simulations are run with decreased primary emissions, but show location-dependent behavior from increased amounts of secondary organic aerosol and charge-enhanced growth. For all test cases, the change in the concentration of particles larger than 80 nm between solar minimum (high cosmic ray flux) and solar maximum (low cosmic ray flux) simulations is less than 0.2%. The change in the total number of particles larger than 10 nm was larger, but always less than 1%. The simulated change in the column-integrated Ångström exponent was negligible for all test cases. Additionally, we test the predicted aerosol sensitivity to week-long Forbush decreases of cosmic rays and find that the maximum change in aerosol properties for these cases is similar to steady-state aerosol differences between the solar maximum and solar minimum. These results provide evidence that the effect of cosmic rays on CCN and clouds through the ion-aerosol clear-sky mechanism is limited by dampening from aerosol processes.

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