Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System (CAWSES) Highlights From a Priority Program

About this book

CAWSES (Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System) is the most important scientific program of SCOSTEP (Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics). CAWSES has triggered a scientific priority program within the German Research Foundation for a period of 6 years. Approximately 30 scientific institutes and 120 scientists were involved in Germany with strong links to international partners. The priority program focuses on solar influence on climate, atmospheric coupling processes, and space climatology.

Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System (CAWSES) summarizes the most important results from this program covering some important research topics from the Sun to climate. Solar related processes are studied including the evolution of solar radiation with relevance to climate. Results regarding the influence of the Sun on the terrestrial atmosphere from the troposphere to the thermosphere are presented including stratospheric ozone, mesospheric ice clouds, geomagnetic effects, and their relevance to climate.

Several chapters highlight the importance of coupling mechanisms within the atmosphere, covering transport mechanisms of photochemically active species, dynamical processes such as gravity waves, tides, and planetary waves, and feedback mechanisms between the thermal and dynamical structure of the atmosphere. Special attention is paid to climate signals in the middle and upper atmosphere and their significance relative to natural variability.

Contents

1. Scientific summary of the German CAWSES priority program
2. Models of solar total and spectral irradiance variability of relevance for climate studies
3. Investigation of solar irradiance variations and their impact on middle atmospheric ozone
4. Solar activity, the heliosphere, cosmic rays and their Impact on the Earth's atmosphere
5. Do galactic cosmic rays impact the cirrus cloud cover? -
6. Laboratory experiments on the microphysics of electrified cloud droplets
7. Investigations of the solar influence on middle atmospheric water vapour and ozone during the last solar cycle - analysis of the MPS data set
8. Influence of solar radiation on the diurnal and seasonal variability of O₃ and H₂O in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere, based on continuous observations in the tropics and the high Arctic
9. Data assimilation and model calculations to study chemistry climate interactions in the stratosphere
10. The response of atomic hydrogen to solar radiation changes
11. High-latitude thermospheric density and wind dependence on solar and magnetic activity
12. Global sporadic E layer characteristics obtained from GPS radio occultation measurements
13. Atmospheric ionization due to precipitating charged particles
14. EISCAT's contributions to high latitude ionosphere and atmosphere
15. The influence of energetic particles on the chemistry of the middle atmosphere
16. The impact of energetic particle precipitation on the chemical composition of the middle atmosphere: measurements and model predictions
17. Simulation of particle precipitation effects on the atmosphere with the MESSy model system
18. Solar variability and trend effects in mesospheric ice layers
19. Charged aerosol effects on the scattering of radar waves from the D-region
20. Impact of short-term solar variability on the polar summer mesopause and noctilucent clouds
21. Observations and ray tracing of gravity waves: Implications for global modeling
22. Atmospheric coupling by gravity waves: climatology of gravity wave activity, mesospheric turbulence and their relations to solar activity
23. Infra-red radiative cooling/heating of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere due to the small-scale temperature fluctuations associated with gravity waves
24. The influence of zonally asymmetric stratospheric ozone on the coupling of atmospheric layers
25. Extending the parameterization of gravity waves into the thermosphere and modeling their effect
26. The geospace response to nonmigrating tides
27. Solar diurnal tides in the middle atmosphere: Interactions with the zonal-mean flow, planetary waves and gravity waves
28. Short period dynamics in the mesosphere: Morphology, trends, and the general circulation
29. Solar effects on chemistry and climate including ocean interactions
30. Interannual variability and trends in the stratosphere
31. The atmospheric response to solar variability: Simulations with a general circulation and chemistry model for the entire atmosphere
32. Long-term behaviour of stratospheric transport and mean age as observed from balloon and satellite platforms

Index

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