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.
"feasibility rating of 1 out of 10"
Exactly my point, why waste the space on it?
Thanks, but I heard him mention the european research and the fact that the sun is producing more energy now than in the last 1000 years. This was from the Max Plant Institute. Was this my imagination? Anyway to find out what Rush was refering to?
Any cite to any of this?
pass an anti sun law
So you're telling me that the sun has been increasing its ferocity for the last few hundred years or so? Ever since we stopped the Aztecs from sacrificing large numbers of humans to their sun god? Uh-oh.
"Oh dear! What if the earth is sucked in and incinerated before history reaches its Hegelian teleological omega point of 'social justice???'"
Well, it would result in the forced conversion of a whole bunch of liberal democrats, wouldn't it? Heck, for that, it would almost be worth becomeing incandescent gas, myself.
Good point. I guess the thing is that they had to discuss it, or they would have been criticized for overlooking an option. The concept of a space mirror has been out there for years -- at least this concept was more advanced, being a mesh to diffuse the light, rather than an actual mirror.
Or Fatty Moore, though we don't need a complete eclipse and the start of an ice-age!
Something's not right there. Liquid water can not exist on the surface of Mars currently. The atmospheric pressure is too low.
Damn. It can't be that simple. Furthermore, there is no fix.
Could have been liquid CO2 or even plain old water if it occurred in sufficient quantity to gouge out gullies before it evaporated off.
Sunspot Activity at 8,000-Year High.
Excellent info thanks. Got to love the July 2004 National Geographic. After telling us all about Sunspots and how a sunspot drought in Shakespears time cause the Thames at London and the Lagoon at Venice to regularly freeze, the unnamed NASA offical they were supposedly quoting is quick to assure everyone that there was more Global Warming currently then could be accounted for by Sunspots peaks. This wack jobs are just not going to let go of man made Global Warming theories as long as "Global Warming" is a direct pipeline to the Govt Treasury.
I vote we start sacrificing Liberal Pols and Hollywierd figures to appease the Sun God's wrath.
That's pretty funny, since the article at Space.com said that the exact relationship between sunspot activity and climate is not fully known. Nice to see how they change their story as it suits their predetermined outcome.
I'll have to look over that issue of NG next time I head down the library. Should be interesting to watch the mental gymnastics they go through on the subject.
It was last years June or July's issue. Borrowed it from the guy sitting next to me on a plane trip. It's the cover story. That trip to VA was the week right after July 4th 2004.
Well now, how in the hell did George Bush screw that up?????
/sarcasm
If he'd paid China and India their polution credits*, this would never have happened!!!!
*pollution credits - required under the terms of the never ratified Kyoto treaty.
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