Dear Tom,
Is there a short and/or long-term correlation between solar activity and temperatures here on earth?
John Lee
Dear John,
There may well be a solar link, according to new research by Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Dr. Sallie Baliunas. Two decades of NASA satellite data indicate a close relationship between solar magnetism and brightness.
Changes in either can be correlated to global temperature shifts. A period of significant global warming in the 10th and 11th centuries appears related to a marked increase in solar brightness, while the Little Ice Age of the 17th/18th centuries occurred in a period of reduced solar brightness.
Baliunas thinks it possible that greenhouse gas concentrations are overrated as causes of this centurys warming. At least half the warming this century, she says, occurred before 1940--while most greenhouse gas additions occurred after 1940.
She also points to Danish studies linking the sun to temperature changing cloud cover shifts and British studies linking the suns UV output to ozone layer changes affecting climate.
----------
Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His weather forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN News at noon and 9 p.m.
Send your questions to:
ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Place, Chicago, Il. 60618
e-mail:asktomwhy@tribune.com
Comments on this posting?
Click here to post a public comment on the Trash Talk Bulletin Board.
Click here to send a private comment to the Junkman.