{"id":261,"date":"2024-08-05T16:28:55","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T16:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/?page_id=261"},"modified":"2024-09-11T18:11:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T18:11:40","slug":"how-does-the-sun-affect-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/?page_id=261","title":{"rendered":"How does the sun affect climate change?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Approximately 1360 watts per square meter of irradiance<\/em> arrive at the earth from the sun.\u00a0 Averaging over the earth\u2019s spherical surface (dayside, nightside, poles), this irradiance is 340 watts per square meter of earth, but of this only 200 watts per square meter<\/strong> makes it through the atmosphere and heats the surface of the earth. Water vapor is by far the major absorber of incoming sunlight, and together with dust and ozone it blocks 52% of the sun’s incoming energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sun<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Solar_spectrum_en.svg<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sun\u2019s irradiance typically becomes stronger as the number of sunspots increase and diminishes as the number declines.\u00a0 Sunspots usually occur in an 11-year cycle, but there have been long periods when the sun’s radience has been more or less than normal.\u00a0 When irradiance decreases, not only is the earth\u2019s temperature directly reduced, but also more galactic cosmic rays enter the atmosphere.\u00a0 This increases cloudiness, which then reflects more of the sun\u2019s radiation back to space.\u00a0 However, this effect is minor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies disagree on how much the sun\u2019s irradiance has varied over history; the estimates range from 3 to 7 watts per square meter1<\/a><\/sup> \u2014 roughly a 0.2% to 0.5% change. \u00a0 If solar radiation diminished for a long period by 0.26% \u2014 3.6 watts per square meter, the earth\u2019s temperature would fall by approximately 3\/4ths of a degree C and vice-versa.<\/strong>\u00a0 Hence, past changes in climate, such as in the Little Ice Age and the Minoan Warm Period, may be explained by solar changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the three most recent decades satellite measurements indicate that irradiance changes have been minimal and have not departed from norms, causing at most a temperature change of 0.01\u00baC2<\/a><\/sup>. Therefore, the sun is not responsible for recent climate warming.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n

  1. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Approximately 1360 watts per square meter of irradiance arrive at the earth from the sun.\u00a0 Averaging over the earth\u2019s spherical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"[{\"id\":\"025085f6-bf12-4e02-8150-e953852e12b4\",\"content\":\"\"},{\"id\":\"5b2effc4-18c1-4ea9-8cb3-a26b473d2c6f\",\"content\":\"\"}]"},"class_list":["post-261","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":535,"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/261\/revisions\/535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}