Scientists at the UK’s National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) have discovered that particles detected deep underground correlate to weather events in the Earth's upper atmosphere.Collaborating with the US-based Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) project at Fermilab, scientists analyzed data collected from an abandoned iron-ore mine in Minnesota. They found a remarkably close correlation between subatomic particles named muons detected underground and the temperature of the stratosphere. Cosmic rays naturally decay upon entering the atmosphere, producing a muon as a daughter product. A rise in temperature means an expansion of the atmosphere, with fewer impacts destroying cosmic rays and leaving them to decay and produce muons.
Also suprising was a correlation with sudden and intermittent increases in stratosphere temperature (as much as 40°C) occurring during winter months. This weather event, known as Sudden Stratospheric Warming, has long been regarded as unpredictable but now can be identified by sudden increases in the levels of muons detected.
Climate data has previously only been available via weather balloons and satelites, but these findings open a new avenue for ground-based meteorological study.
These results were published in a recent edition of Geophysical Research Letters.
Source: ScienceDaily
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