http://www.dailytech.com/NASA+Study+Acknowledges+Solar+Cycle+Not+Man+Responsible+for+Past+Warming/article15310.htm
Report indicates solar cycle has been impacting Earth since the Industrial Revolution
Some researchers believe that the solar cycle influences global climate changes. They attribute recent warming trends to cyclic variation. Skeptics, though, argue that there's little hard evidence of a solar hand in recent climate changes.
Now, a new research report from a surprising source may help to lay this skepticism to rest. A study from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland looking at climate data over the past century has concluded that solar variation has made a significant impact on the Earth's climate. The report concludes that evidence for climate changes based on solar radiation can be traced back as far as the Industrial Revolution.
Past research has shown that the sun goes through eleven year cycles. At the cycle's peak, solar activity occurring near sunspots is particularly intense, basking the Earth in solar heat. According to Robert Cahalan, a climatologist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, "Right now, we are in between major ice ages, in a period that has been called the Holocene."
Thomas Woods, solar scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder concludes, "The fluctuations in the solar cycle impacts Earth's global temperature by about 0.1 degree Celsius, slightly hotter during solar maximum and cooler during solar minimum. The sun is currently at its minimum, and the next solar maximum is expected in 2012."
According to the study, during periods of solar quiet, 1,361 watts per square meter of solar energy reaches Earth's outermost atmosphere. Periods of more intense activity brought 1.4 watts per square meter (0.1 percent) more energy.
While the NASA study acknowledged the sun's influence on warming and cooling patterns, it then went badly off the tracks. Ignoring its own evidence, it returned to an argument that man had replaced the sun as the cause current warming patterns. Like many studies, this conclusion was based less on hard data and more on questionable correlations and inaccurate modeling techniques.
The inconvertible fact, here is that even NASA's own study acknowledges that solar variation has caused climate change in the past. And even the study's members, mostly ardent supports of AGW theory, acknowledge that the sun may play a significant role in future climate changes.
Of course, NASA being the IPCC pet they are, they ignored themselves and finished off supporting the BS AGW theory as usual.
hmmm funny that. I remember the same panic, no it's OK cycle about the hole in the Ozone layer.
Just remember, it's Al's fault, but at least he brought us the 'net to tell about it with, lol.
Meanwhile, in L.A., Prius's are 15% off today, special sale only, get 'em while they last! :rollin:
Seriously...hasn't...ummm, Earth been heating and cooling over the last few million years? Ice ages, and whatnot?
Hmmm...yeah, makes sense to me.;)
skeptics would also say that global warming itself is a crock... :P
And optimists would look forward to growing oranges in Nova Scotia ;)
I've been saying for years that the effect of radiative flux from the sun dwarfs anything we could ever do to our climate. Actually, I'm amazed that the sun (and all of the other "nearby" stars, for that matter) have allowed life to survive even this long. A supernova a little too close and life will have a *really* bad week here. Then again, I have a Master's in Physics...and most environmentalists don't :D
*Ahem*
What global warming?
Seriously, It's June 5th and today I saw my breath due to how cold it was ----- DURING THE DAY.
FWIW, solar activity has been in a lull for the past year or so. Do a google search for sunspots and solar flares. Interesting stuff.
I know that last year they were saying the sun is late for it's regular 11 year cycle, as sunspots were not increasing as they should.
-you know it......I know it....making all of the "green" people believe it.....Hadies will freeze over first!!!:flame:
of course i have no problem with taking care of the environment, but some(alot)take it overboard....:screwy:
I was thinking about this and there's no question that many things effect short-term temperature cycles - and sun-spots are a dominant part of this cycle. I did then wonder what those short-term cycles have to do with some of the long-term changes in temperature and ice-cover? I think the normal cycles are riding on a longer term trend that hasn't been fully explained yet - though theories abound :hick:
It's in this year's Farmer's Almanac, too. Good read. Still getting frost on the windshield here.
brrr..... heat kicked on last night
...global warming doesn't make it WARMER in many places - instead it changes temperatures around the globe causing climate shifts. Don't be surprised if it being colder at certain times of the year is caused by global warming. It gets irritating with everyone always going against these changes by bringing up their local temperatures when in fact the climate IS changing - it always does though.
I don't care much one way or the other. I consume <5kW of electricity a day, recycle enough, get 32mpg in my vehicle on the highway, and blah blah so whether or not we affect it, I do enough.