Thank you Charles for posting this. I too was waiting for an inevitable post on the topic.

I would like to add some points not mentioned in your post.

1. Driving of cloud formation by cosmic rays has been a subject of discussion for some time. For those who are curious, cosmic rays are high energy (usually) extra solar particles that form a background. They are frequently the result of violent astronomical events. The vast bulk of them are protons accelerated to extremely high energies that have wandered here from across space. In any case, long before modern experimental particle physics techniques were employed to look at particles, a device called a cloud chamber was used. The physics here is essentially the same.

2. A cloud chamber works by having water vapor near the critical point of water and shooting high energy particles through it. The particles ionize water vapor and thes ionized molecules form nucleation centers for droplets to form.

3. For a long time, debate had raged as to how much of an effect cloud formation caused by this forcing could effect climate. Despite uncertainty in this effect, even the largest possible forcing caused by it, is already surpassed by the warming we are seeing as cuased by other drivers. As an example, say I don’t know how much something weighs, and I have reason to believe it weighs 500 kg +/- 200 kg. That is a huge uncertainty granted. If I am adding that to something that weighs 10,000 kg, and looking for the total mass, the uncertanty in the smaller part matters much less. One look at the amount of warming we have and the availible energy budget shows very quickly that we have exceeded the gretest possible warming from this effect assuming that is was much greater than currently measured. 4. If there were more cosmic rays leading to more cloud cover, then the earth would cool because of an increased albedo. We are not seeing this.

5. If there were less cosmic rays, leading to less cloud formation, we would get warmer, but this would also produce more water vapor. This could have a warming effect, or it could end up being a wash in certain circumstances, because cosmic rays are not the only things that cause cloud formation. In any case, the point is moot because we are not seeing a marked drop in cosmic rays hitting the Earth.

6. The great importance of this research is that it will aid in weather forcasting. In terms of climate, it will actually end up putting yet another nail in the coffin of this line of climate denial.