On the Climate-Radiocarbon Relationship: Nitric Oxide and Ozone as Connecting Links Between Radiation and the Earth's Surface Temperatures

Abstract

The correlations between atmospheric radiocarbon cencentrations, on the one hand, and solar activity and the earth's magnetic field, on the other, as well as possible relations between surface temperatures and solar activity and the earth's magnetic field are considered. To draw a consistent picture of these relations, the following mechanisms for climatic changes are proposed: The earth's magnetic field and solar activity both influence the fluxes of charged solar particles into the upper stratosphere; higher surface temperatures are positively correlated with higher particles fluxes. Charged particles produce nitric oxide, which controls, to some extent, the ozone destruction and, thus, the ozone inventory in the upper layers of the stratosphere (above the 10 mbar level) in latitudes greater than about 60 degrees. The varying ozone contents in the upper stratosphere affect the radiation balance and the temperatures on the earth's surface. It has been estimated that a reduction, or increase, respectively, of ozone in the layers above 10 mbar warms, or cools, respectively, the earth's surface. A change of ozone in the lower layers of the stratosphere has the opposite effect. The maximum net effect is in the order of Delta-T is approximately equal to 0.3 1 K, in both directions. This hypothesis might be in accordance with an orbital origin of long-term climatic changes.