The Sun is more active now than over the last 8000 years (2004)

https://www.mpg.de/research/sun-activity-high

by firebaze • 6 years ago

47 23 6 years ago

abakus• 6 years ago

How much of the global warming can be explained by this increased sun activity?

techload• 6 years ago

From the article, at the very end: "Whether this effect could have provided a significant contribution to the global warming of the Earth during the last century is an open question. The researchers around Sami K. Solanki stress the fact that solar activity has remained on a roughly constant (high) level since about 1980 - apart from the variations due to the 11-year cycle - while the global temperature has experienced a strong further increase during that time. On the other hand, the rather similar trends of solar activity and terrestrial temperature during the last centuries (with the notable exception of the last 20 years) indicates that the relation between the Sun and climate remains a challenge for further research."

keithnz2• 6 years ago

keeping in mind that was in 2004 and a bunch of further research has happened.

throwaway1892622• 6 years ago

It would be nuts if high solar activity spurred abundant food and thrust humanity into the electrical age. There's gotta be some big trigger why we suddenly have all this tech within 200 years after 100k years of modern humans walking about as cavemen

smitty1110• 6 years ago

Almost none [1]. In theory, solar radiation has been decreasing a bit, so we should have cooled slightly over the past 50 years.

[1] https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/14/is-the-sun-causing-global-wa...

refurb• 6 years ago

So the sun is more active but irradiance is decreasing?

bumby• 6 years ago

Is the little hump inn temperature in the 1940s interpretable? Is it possible this is from the mass industrialization during WW2?

thrill• 6 years ago

According to some researchers, pretty much all of it. Take a look at the list of skeptical (and frequently demonized) scientists here: https://thebestschools.org/features/top-climate-change-scien...

orwin• 6 years ago

Sadly not much. The stratosphere is getting colder, while the troposphere is getting hotter, and the overall energy the earth is getting from the sun is sensibly the same. See https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Solar (it was a quick search)

pacamara619• 6 years ago

An absolutely tiny and negligible amount, almost immeasurably small.

sleepysysadmin• 6 years ago

A very large portion, not all, not little.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle#/media/File:Sunspo...

Notice the Modern Maximum starting around ~1800 which is also when all the graphs of global warming show increases; whereas normally the industrial revolution is blamed.

Maunder minimum -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age

Medieval maximum -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Warm_Period though our data is far less clear about that period of time.

Fundamentally, you can look at this graph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record#/m...

The climate warms and cools quite regularly. The Earth warmed 6 celcius over the last 20,000 years without our help.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eemian about 115,000 years ago it was 1-2 celcius warmer. Which is roughly what is currently being predicted as part of climate change by 2100.

glofish• 6 years ago

In a related news here today:

The Laptev Sea hasn't frozen

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24932466

bamboozled• 6 years ago

Is this actually related?

The sea is freezing due to an anthropomorphic climate emergency, the other is more of an astronomical observation with seemingly immeasurable impact on our climate.

foxyv• 6 years ago

Did you mean anthropogenic?

Anthropomorphic would be if we made the climate emergency into a human mascot. Which would be kind of interesting.

IvyMike• 6 years ago

It's been about one and a half "11 year" cycles since this was published. Here's a recent paper from the same group, which covers those years: https://www.mps.mpg.de/solar-cycle-25-has-begun?c=2169

My reading is the most recent cycle was relatively "tame" but I would love for an expert to weigh in.

breput• 6 years ago

The last solar cycle was extraordinarily inactive. I'm not sure why this bubbling to the top - the title even with the (2004) is misleading.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle_24

The Sun is more active now than over the last 8000 years (2004)

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