Skip to main content
Log in

Solar Variability and the Earth's Climate: Introduction and Overview

Space Science Reviews Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Numerous attempts have been made over the years to link various aspects of solar variability to changes in the Earth's climate. There has been growing interest in this possible connection in recent years, spurred largely by the need to understand the natural causes of climate change, against which the expected global warming due to man's activities will have to be detected. The time scale of concern here is that of decades to centuries, and excludes the longer millennial scale in which orbital variations play a dominant role. The field has long been plagued by the lack of an acceptable physical mechanism by which solar variability can affect climate, but the discovery of variability in the Sun's total irradiance (the solar “constant” of meteorology) by spacecraft instruments has pointed to a direct mechanism. Other less direct mechanisms that have been suggested involve variations in the Sun's ultraviolet flux and in the plasma outflow of the solar wind. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current state of the field, emphasizing the proposed mechanisms as an introduction to the more detailed papers that follow. The particular case of sea-surface temperature data will be used as an illustration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Apel, J.R.: 1987, Principles of Ocean Physics, International Geophysics Series 38, Academic Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bottomley, M., Folland, C.K., Hsiung, J., Newell, R.E. and Parker, D.E.: 1990, Global Ocean Surface Temperature Atlas, U.K. Meteorological Office and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  • Broecker, W.S.: 1997, Thermohaline Circulation, the Achilles Heel of our Climate System: Will Man-Made CO2 Upset the Current Balance?’, Science 278, 1582–1588.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crutzen, P.J., Isaksen, I.S.A., and Reid, G.C.: 1975, Solar Proton Events: Stratospheric Sources of Nitric Oxide’, Science 189, 457–458.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cubasch, U. and Voss, R.: 2000, ‘The Influence of Total Solar Irradiance on Climate’, Space Science Reviews, this volume.

  • Dickinson, R.E.: 1975, Solar Variability and the Lower Atmosphere’, Bull. Amer. Met. Soc. 56, 1240–1248.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dutton, E.G. and Christy, J.R.: 1992, Solar Radiative Forcing at Selected Locations and Evidence for Global Lower Tropospheric Cooling Following the Eruptions of El Chichon and Pinatubo’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 19, 2313–2316.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eddy, J.A.: 1976, The Maunder Minimum’, Science 192, 1189–1202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Folland, C.K., Parker, D.E. and Kates, F.E.: 1984, Worldwide Marine Temperature Fluctuations 1856–1981’, Nature 310, 670–673.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haigh, J.D.: 1996, The Impact of Solar Variability on Climate’, Science 272, 981–984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haigh, J.D.: 1999, Modelling the Impact of Solar Variability on Climate’, J. Atmos. Sol. Terrest. Phys. 61, 63–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hickey, J.R., Stowe, L.L., Jacobowitz, H., Pellegrino, P., Maschhoff, R.H., House, F. and Vonder-Haar, T.H.: 1980, Initial Solar Irradiance Determinations form Nimbus 7 Cavity Radiometer Measurements’, Science 208, 281–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoyt, D.V.: 1979, The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Solar Constant Program’, Revs. Geophys. Space Phys. 17, 427–458.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoyt, D.V. and Schatten, K.H.: 1993, A Discussion of Plausible Solar Irradiance Variations, 1700–1992’, J. Geophys. Res. 98, 18,895–18,906.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kernthaler, S.C., Toumi, R. and Haigh, J.D.: 1999, Some Doubts Concerning a Link Between Cosmic-Ray Fluxes and Global Cloudiness’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 26, 863–866.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kodera, K., Yamazaki, K., Chiba, M. and Shibata, K.: 1990, Downward Propagation of Upper Stratospheric Mean Zonal Wind Perturbation to the Troposphere’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 17, 1263–1266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Labitzke, K. and van Loon, H.: 1989, Association Between the 11-Year Solar Cycle, the QBO and the Atmosphere. Part I: The Troposphere and Stratosphere in the Northern Hemisphere in Winter’, J. Climate 2, 554–565.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lean, J. and Rind, D.: 1998, Climate Forcing by Changing Solar Radiation’, J. Climate 11, 3069–3094.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lean, J. and Rind, D.: 1999, Evaluating Sun-Climate Relationships Since the Little Ice Age’, J. Atmos. Sol. Terrest. Phys. 61, 25–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lean, J., Skumanich, A. and White, O.: 1992, Estimating the Sun's Radiative Output During the Maunder Minimum’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 19, 1591–1594.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lean, J., Beer, J. and Bradley, R.: 1995, Reconstruction of Solar Irradiance Since 1610: Implications for Climate Change’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 22, 3195–3198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maunder, E.W.: 1894, A Prolonged Sunspot Minimum’, Knowledge 17, 173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohnen, V.A.: 1990, Stratospheric Ion and Aerosol Chemistry and Possible Links with Cirrus Cloud Microphysics-a Critical Assessment’, J. Atmos. Sci. 47, 1933–1948.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nesme-Ribes, E., Ferreira, E.N., Sadourny, R., Le Treut, H. and Li, Z.X.: 1993, Solar Dynamics and its Impact on Solar Irradiance and the Terrestrial Climate’, J. Geophys. Res. 98, 18,923–18,935.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ney, E.P.: 1959, Cosmic Radiation and the Weather’, Nature 183, 451–452.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pap, J.M. and Fröhlich, C.: 1999, Total Solar Irradiance Variations’, J. Atmos. Sol. Terrest. Phys. 61, 15–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, D.E., Jones, P.D., Folland, C.K. and Bevan, A: 1994, Interdecadal Changes of Surface Temperature Since the Late Nineteenth Century’, J. Geophys. Res. 99, 14,373–14,399.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid, G.C.: 1987, Influence of Solar Variability on Global Sea Surface Temperatures’, Nature 329, 142–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid, G.C.: 1991, Solar Total Irradiance Variations and the Global Sea Surface Temperature Record’, J. Geophys. Res. 96, 2835–2844.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid, G.C.: 1997, Solar Forcing of Global Climate Change Since the Mid-17th Century’, Clim. Change 37, 391–405.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid, G.C., Solomon, S. and Garcia, R.R.: 1991, Response of the Middle Atmosphere to the Solar Proton Events of August-December 1989’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 18, 1019–1022.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rottman, G.: 1999, Solar Ultraviolet Irradiance and its Temporal Variation’, J. Atmos. Sol. Terrest. Phys. 61, 37–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schimel, D., et al.: 1996, Climate Change, 1995: The Science of Climate Change, Working Group 1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shindell, D., Rind, D., Balachandran, N., Lean, J. and Lonergan, P.: 1999, Solar Cycle Variability, Ozone, and Climate’, Science 284, 305–308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Svensmark, H. and Friis-Christensen, E.: 1997, Variation of Cosmic Ray Flux and Global Cloud Coverage-A Missing Link in Solar-Climate Relationships’, J. Atmos. Terrest. Phys. 59, 1225–1232.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, W.R., Lean, J., Cayan, D.R. and Dettinger, M.D.: 1997, Response of Global Upper Ocean Temperature to Changing Solar Irradiance’, J. Geophys. Res. 102, 3255–3266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willson, R.C.: 1981, Solar Total Irradiance Observations by Active Cavity Radiometers’, Sol. Phys. 74, 217–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willson, R.C. and Hudson, H.S.: 1991, The Sun's Luminosity Over a Complete Solar Cycle’, Nature 351, 42–44.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Reid, G.C. Solar Variability and the Earth's Climate: Introduction and Overview. Space Science Reviews 94, 1–11 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026797127105

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026797127105

Navigation