History of cosmic ray influence on Ozone layer - Key steps

A review presents the history and present-day state of the theoretical and experimental studies of the interaction between corpuscular radiation of cosmic nature and the Earth's atmosphere. According to the current knowledge, ionization of the atmosphere due to solar and galactic cosmic rays can produce additional chemical sources and sinks of ozone molecules in the atmosphere, contributing to both short-period ozone variations after solar flares and its long-term variations. At present, the huge volume of satellite and ground-based data on the chemical composition of the atmosphere and the characteristics of cosmic rays, together with the theoretical approaches and numerical simulations, make possible to form a new view on the contribution of cosmic factors on the variability of the Earth's ozone layer. (C) 2003 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.