Absence of sunspots make scientists wonder

[Scout26]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/21/AR2010062104114.html?g=0


F

rigid Europe


Michael Lockwood, a professor of space environment physics at the University of Reading in England, may already have identified one response: the unusually frigid European winter of 2009-10. He has studied records back to 1650 and found that severe European winters are much more likely during periods of low solar activity. This fits an idea of solar activity's giving rise to small changes in the global climate overall but large regional effects.

Another example is the so-called Maunder minimum, the period from 1645 to 1715 during which sunspots virtually disappeared and solar activity plummeted. If a similar spell of solar inactivity were to begin now and continue until 2100, it would mitigate any temperature rise caused by global warming by no more than 0.3 degrees Celsius, according to calculations by Georg Feulner and Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

However, something amplified the impact of the Maunder minimum on northern Europe, ushering in a period known as the Little Ice Age, when colder-than-average winters became more prevalent and the average temperature in Europe appeared to drop by between 1 and 2 degrees Celsius.

A corresponding increase in temperatures on Earth appears to be associated with peaks in solar output. In 2008, Judith Lean of the Naval Research Laboratory's space science division published a study showing that high solar activity has a disproportionate warming influence on northern Europe.

What the sun will do next is beyond our ability to predict. Most astronomers think that the solar cycle will proceed but at significantly depressed levels of activity, similar to those last seen in the 19th century. However, there is also evidence that the sun is inexorably losing its ability to produce sunspots. By 2015, they could be gone altogether, plunging us into a new Maunder minimum -- and perhaps a new Little Ice Age.

Of course, solar activity is just one natural source of climate variability. Another is volcanic eruptions, spewing gas and dust into the atmosphere.

Nevertheless, it remains crucial to understand the precise changeability of the sun and the way it influences the various regional patterns of weather on Earth. Climate scientists will then be able to correct for these effects, not just in interpreting modern measurements but also when attempting to reconstruct the climate stretching back centuries. It is only by doing so that we can reach an unassailable consensus about the sun's true level of influence on the Earth and its climate.

Clark holds a PhD in astrophysics and writes regularly about astronomy. The author of "The Sun Kings" (Princeton), he blogs at http://www.stuartclark.com. This article is adapted from one that appeared in the New Scientist; it can be read in full at http://www.newscientist.com.

As I've said all along.  Solar activity has a much greater influence on earthly climate then any of man's puny efforts or the effects of his activity.

[Ron]

As I've said all along.  Solar activity has a much greater influence on earthly climate then any of man's puny efforts or the effects of his activity.

Silly denier, you actually believe the sun effects our climate? Ha!!  

[Hawkmoon]

Hmmm ...

Sun ==> Heat

Less sun ==> Less heat

Now who ever would have expected THAT?

[Tallpine]

Hmmm ...

Sun ==> Heat

Less sun ==> Less heat

Now who ever would have expected THAT?

Doesn't make any sense, does it?

So how come it gets cooler at night