The Sun provides the main energy input to the terrestrial atmosphere, and yet the impact of solar variability on long-term changes remains a controversial issue. Direct radiative forcing is the most studied mechanism. Other much weaker mechanisms, however, can have a significant leverage, but the underlying physics is often poorly known. We review the main mechanisms by which solar variability ...

Rayleigh-scattering cross sections and volume-scattering coefficients are computed for standard air; they incorporate the variation of the depolarization factor with wavelength. Rayleigh optical depths are then calculated for the 1962 U.S. Standard Atmosphere and for five supplementary models. Analytic formulas are derived for each of the parameters listed. The new optical depths can be 1.3% lo...

The sensitivity of oceanic CO2 uptake to alterations in the marine biological carbon pump, such as brought about by natural or purposeful ocean fertilization, has repeatedly been investigated by studies employing numerical biogeochemical ocean models. It is shown here that the results of such ocean-centered studies are very sensitive to the assumption made about the response of the carbon reser...

The variation of life has predominantly been studied on land and in water, but this focus is changing. There is a resurging interest in the distribution of life in the atmosphere and the processes that underlie patterns in this distribution. Here, we review our current state of knowledge about the biodiversity and biogeography of the atmosphere, with an emphasis on micro-organisms, the numerica...

[1] If life exists beneath the Martian surface similar to terrestrial bacteria that rely upon chemical reactions involving H2 and/or CO as energy sources, then it may be possible to infer its existence by observing metabolic byproducts that would appear as trace gases in the Martian atmosphere. We have studied the fate of organic trace gases in the Martian atmosphere and find that most have ver...