Association between extraterrestrial phenomena and weather changes in the Northern Hemisphere in winter

This paper includes a discussion of the validity of the objections which are usually raised against the physical plausibility of the correlations between extraterrestrial phenomena and changes in circulation in the lower atmosphere. The behaviour of the winter lower troposphere in the Northern Hemisphere was analysed both on a month-to-month time scale and on a day-to-day time scale. The mechanisms which can satisfactorily explain the behaviour of the winter lower troposphere on these time scales have been described. The basic features of the results presented were explained by means of a mechanism based on the propagation of planetary waves. Attention was focussed on studying the connections among the changes in the pressure and temperature fields, the changes in solar/geomagnetic activity and QBO phases by the method of composites. It has been found that the composites without considering QBO phases are similar to the QBO-east patterns under the highest activities. Pressure deviations during QBO-west high solar activity or low geomagnetic activity and temperature deviations during QBO-east/west low geomagnetic activity proved to be of negligible statistical significance.