“Who’ll bring the rain?”

Clouds may bring the rain, but what brings the clouds? The answer may lay in the cosmos…well, the cosmic rays at least.

"The odds of a cloudy day increase by around 20 per cent when the cosmic ray flux is high," says Harrison, amounting to a few extra days of cloudiness per year.

When cosmic rays hit the atmosphere they produce charged particles which seem encourage the growth of cloud droplets. Compared with greenhouse gases the effect of cosmic rays on climate is small. But it could help explain some of the more mysterious changes in climate Earth has experienced in the past.

So, does Seattle have a funnel poised high overhead through which cosmic rays are gathered?

Via Lucianne