Posted on 09/21/2005 1:11:52 PM PDT by MNJohnnie
what could be the simplest explanation for one component of global warming, a new study shows the Sun's radiation has increased by .05 percent per decade since the late 1970s.
The increase would only be significant to Earth's climate if it has been going on for a century or more, said study leader Richard Willson, a Columbia University researcher also affiliated with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The Sun's increasing output has only been monitored with precision since satellite technology allowed necessary observations. Willson is not sure if the trend extends further back in time, but other studies suggest it does.
"This trend is important because, if sustained over many decades, it could cause significant climate change," Willson said.
In a NASA-funded study recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, Willson and his colleagues speculate on the possible history of the trend based on data collected in the pre-satellite era.
"Solar activity has apparently been going upward for a century or more," Willson told SPACE.com today.
Significant component
Further satellite observations may eventually show the trend to be short-term. But if the change has indeed persisted at the present rate through the 20th Century, "it would have provided a significant component of the global warming the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports to have occurred over the past 100 years," he said.
That does not mean industrial pollution has not been a significant factor, Willson cautioned.
Scientists, industry leaders and environmentalists have argued for years whether humans have contributed to global warming, and to what extent. The average surface temperature around the globe has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1880. Some scientists say the increase could be part of natural climate cycles. Others argue that greenhouse gases produced by automobiles and industry are largely to blame.
Willson said the Sun's possible influence has been largely ignored because it is so difficult to quantify over long periods.
Confounding efforts to determine the Sun's role is the fact that its energy output waxes and wanes every 11 years. This solar cycle, as it is called, reached maximum in the middle of 2000 and achieved a second peak in 2002. It is now ramping down toward a solar minimum that will arrive in about three years.
Connections
Changes in the solar cycle -- and solar output -- are known to cause short-term climate change on Earth. At solar max, Earth's thin upper atmosphere can see a doubling of temperature. It swells, and denser air can puff up to the region of space where the International Space Station orbits, causing increased drag on the ship and forcing more frequent boosts from space shuttles.
You mean the earth can be warmed by the sun? Damn, the MSM swears it can only be Bush's failurre to sign Kyoto!
Ah ha! Rove and Haliburton at it again! Bwahahaha - evil laugh
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeee.
Oh no!! The sun's HOT!! We're doomed!
This monkey ain't gonna take his hand offa that banana anytime soon.
"Day Before Yesterday" being developed by H'rocks. It's a "bring your own popcorn" type of movie.
Now there are SUVs on the sun too?!?!?!?
This is better than the alternative!
If this is the case we need to start burning lots of dirty coal and run our diesels with the soot filters off. need to increase the particulate matter in the atmosphere to cool things off.
Note this statement that subtely defends global warming. The sun's increase in energy output might be a factor in global warming but we don't have enough information that would show a hotter sun would mean a hotter Earth. CO2 emmissions from man is still the accepted rational for global warming, even though an anthropomorphic link hasn't been strongly established and assuming there is no change in solar output. The Greenies will hammer the uncertainties in studies like these, or will say global warming compounds the problem while ignoring the uncertainties of global warming. It is really about socialism and use of natural resources, not the environment.
That monkey ain't gonna take his hand offa this banana anytime soon.
I need the rest of the afternoon off.
It's dem derr dag-nabbed HYDROGEN CARS that Bush proposed! HA! It is Bush's fault! Nyarrrrrrrgh!
You know, the Sun refused to sign Kyoto.
The answer is simple, our global warming is sooo bad, it's warming the sun!
DAMN THAT BUSH!
That actually makes sense.
To the contrary, me thinks the Left Wackos will place the blame on a hidden conspiracy between Bush Clan and The Sun to roast the Earth, so Haliburton led by Cheney will get the mop up contract afterwords.
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