Posted on 07/06/2004 3:40:43 PM PDT by Happy2BMe
A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years.
Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star's activity in the past.
They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth's climate became steadily warmer.
This trend is being amplified by gases from fossil fuel burning, they argue.
'Little Ice Age'
Sunspots have been monitored on the Sun since 1610, shortly after the invention of the telescope. They provide the longest-running direct measurement of our star's activity.
The variation in sunspot numbers has revealed the Sun's 11-year cycle of activity as well as other, longer-term changes.
In particular, it has been noted that between about 1645 and 1715, few sunspots were seen on the Sun's surface.
This period is called the Maunder Minimum after the English astronomer who studied it.
Ice cores record climate trends back beyond human measurements
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Over the past few thousand years there is evidence of earlier Maunder-like coolings in the Earth's climate - indicated by tree-ring measurements that show slow growth due to prolonged cold.
In an attempt to determine what happened to sunspots during these other cold periods, Dr Sami Solanki and colleagues have looked at concentrations of a form, or isotope, of beryllium in ice cores from Greenland.
The isotope is created by cosmic rays - high-energy particles from the depths of the galaxy.
The flux of cosmic rays reaching the Earth's surface is modulated by the strength of the solar wind, the charged particles that stream away from the Sun's surface.
And since the strength of the solar wind varies over the sunspot cycle, the amount of beryllium in the ice at a time in the past can therefore be used to infer the state of the Sun and, roughly, the number of sunspots.
Latest warming
Dr Solanki is presenting a paper on the reconstruction of past solar activity - entitled Cool Stars, Stellar Systems And The Sun - at a conference in Hamburg, Germany.
He says that the reconstruction shows the Maunder Minimum and the other minima that are known in the past thousand years.
But the most striking feature, he says, is that looking at the past 1,150 years the Sun has never been as active as it has been during the past 60 years.
Over the past few hundred years, there has been a steady increase in the numbers of sunspots, a trend that has accelerated in the past century, just at the time when the Earth has been getting warmer.
The data suggests that changing solar activity is influencing in some way the global climate causing the world to get warmer.
Over the past 20 years, however, the number of sunspots has remained roughly constant, yet the average temperature of the Earth has continued to increase.
This is put down to a human-produced greenhouse effect caused by the combustion of fossil fuels.
This latest analysis shows that the Sun has had a considerable influence on the global climate in the past, causing the Earth to warm or chill, and that mankind is amplifying the Sun's latest attempt to warm the Earth.
I like to tune around VHF low-band during openings like this. Heard numerous fire dispatch from the northeast, and some Mexican police (I assume) repeaters around 35.8 or so.
Sadly many in Detroit, Michigan can't count.
(Detroit is anywhere East of Lowell.)
Dang it! I KNEW I shoulda invested heavy in sunspots....
And it (Detroit) is also the largest concentration of Islam in the United States.
Wow. Nothing gets past these guys.
Maybe it was caused by the Normans dipping their arrows into paraffin, and setting them alight..... Seriously though, I did read somewhere where there were actually vineyards in Britain in the 11th century
Of course your post to me probably refers to the fact that I did spell 'lightning' as 'lightening'- must be sunspot activity.
No wonder most scientists in that era only had one good eye.
Note the fools still attempt to tie the current slight variation in the temperature of the earth's atmosphere, which is SO CLEARLY tied to increased activity on on sun, AND which is WELL within the past millenial variations documented by REAL science, to so-called "greenhouse gasses". This in spite of the FACT that a small percentage of said gasses are due to anything mankind has done since the dawn of time (they occur naturally!).
Chicken-little panic mongers are a never-ending source of amusement!
Thanks for the ping.
Glad that's been cleared up. I guess all those people that think the sun has no influences on global climate now having nothing to say...
The Romans liked wine and wheat to be available throughout the empire. But anyway, during the medieval warming period farmsteads rose in altitude and latitude, to levels not viable for agriculture today.Wine Lover's Guide To Ancient BritainAt one Northamptonshire site, the team documented remains of nearly four miles of bedding trenches that they estimate could have supported some 4,000 vines, the fruits of which would have yielded more than 2,600 gallons of wine a year. According to Meadows and Brown, the grapes were grown in the Mediterranean Roman style, that is between parallel sets of poles, a manner that has been described in detail by classical authors such as Pliny the Elder and Columella. Most of the wines the Romans produced were probably fruity, sweet, and brownish in color. The grapes would have been harvested early, before they were fully ripe, around late September. After pressing, large amounts of honey would have been added to the wine for both sweetness and to raise the alcohol content to ten or 12 percent. The wine would then have been placed in amphoras or barrels to ferment for about six months, ready for enjoyment in late winter or early spring.
by Angela M.H. Schuster
Volume 53 Number 2, March/April 2000
I bet those are facts the Enviro-fascists don't want to hear
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