Premium
The sun‐climate question: Is there a real connection?
Author(s) -
Reid George C.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
reviews of geophysics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 8.087
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1944-9208
pISSN - 8755-1209
DOI - 10.1029/95rg00103
Subject(s) - sunlight , climate change , glacial period , environmental science , climate sensitivity , climatology , atmospheric sciences , geology , climate model , physics , astronomy , oceanography , geomorphology
No one can doubt that the sun is the chief driving force for our terrestrial climate. The annual march of the seasons as the earth's axis of rotation tilts toward or away from the sun's direction is sufficient proof of that, while the presence of periodicities in glacial deposits matching those of known orbital variations has revealed the apparent sensitivity of global climate to relatively small changes in the distribution of sunlight. What has remained debatable and controversial, however, is the question of whether or not variations in the sun's radiative and plasma emissions occur that are capable of influencing the weather and climate at the earth's surface. The current status of the field and the implications for global change have recently been reviewed by the U.S. National Research Council [ NRC , 1994].