UPDATE: see some reactions to this announcement here From the
GWPF This refers to the CLOUD experiment at CERN. I’ll have more
on this as it develops (updated twice since the original report
now), but for the short term, it appears that a non-visible
light irradiance effect on Earth’s cloud seeds has been
confirmed. The way it is posited to work is that the effect of
cosmic rays (modulated by the sun’s magnetic variations which
either allow more or deflect more cosmic rays) creates cloud
condensation nuclei in the Earth’s atmosphere. With more
condensation nuclei, more clouds form and vice-versa. Clouds
have significant effects on TSI at the surface. Even the IPCC
has admitted this in their latest (2007) report: “Cloud
feedbacks are the primary source of inter-model differences in
equilibrium climate sensitivity, with low cloud being the
largest contributor”. Update: From the Nature article, Kirkby is
a bit more muted in his assessment than the GWPF: Early results
seem to indicate that cosmic rays do cause a