The lower the activity of the Sun, the greater the warming of the Earth

2010/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Klima
• Astrofisika
• Ingurumena

Satellite data does not correspond to standard models

In times when the activity of the Sun has been less, it is in which more visible light has reached the Earth, so it is then when the Earth's surface has warmed more. This unexpected conclusion has been reached by researchers from Imperial College London analyzing the data collected by NASA's SORCE satellite between 2004 and 2007. Data on the spectral composition of sunlight are collected by the SORCE satellite.

After analyzing the data from 2004 to 2007 we observe what happened in the cushioning phase of the activity of the current cycle of the Sun. In fact, in 2001 it was the busiest year, reaching a minimum in 2009.

When comparing the amounts of light measured by the satellite with the predictions of standard models, significant differences have been found. Models are based on sunspots to predict the Sun's influence on Earth's warming. And in current research it is observed that it is precisely in times of absence of spots or of less presence of spots, that is, when the activity of the Sun is less, when more visible light arrives. The measured ultraviolet light, for its part, has been between 4 and 6 times lower than that announced by the models.

They report that the amount of energy observed during the three years of study has heated the Earth's surface as increasing carbon dioxide emissions. However, the researchers wanted to make it clear that this effect of the Sun is cyclical and therefore cannot affect the climate in the long term. "The influence of the Sun is, at most, a small supplement to climate change that is currently being produced by human action," said Martin Dameris, an atmospheric scientist at the German Aerospace Center, on the Nature website.