Russian Journal of Earth Sciences
Vol. 6, No. 5, October 2004
The effects of galactic cosmic rays, modulated by solar terrestrial
magnetic fields, on the climate
V. A. Dergachev1, P. B. Dmitriev1,
O. M. Raspopov2, and B. Van Geel3
1 Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Science,
Sankt-Petersburg, Russia;
2 Sankt-Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism,
Ionosphere, and Radio Wave
Propagation, Russian Academy of Science;
3 Amsterdam University, Holland
Abstract
The results of analyzing the paleodata on solar activity variations (variations of
cosmogenic
14C and
10Be isotopes in the terrestrial records, such as glaciers, tree rings,
sea-floor marine and
lacustrine sediments, loess, etc.), the paleomagnetic and archeomagnetic data, as
well as the paleoclimatic
data, prove that the flows of galactic cosmic rays, modulated by heliomagnetic and
geomagnetic fields,
affect the climate of the Earth. In this study we analyzed different periods of time,
namely, the last
millennium, the Holocene epoch (up to 10-12 thousand years ago), and the time interval
of 10-50 thousand
years ago. Our analysis suggested that the variations of the cosmic ray fluxes seemed
to be the most
effective factor responsible for long-term climate variations.