Climate Change Factors Part 2
In "Climate Change Factors Part 1", we saw that people were on the prod, blaming humans for global warming or "anthropogenic climate change". But the whole thing is not "settled science" because there are many factors that still need to be considered. Today, we have a severe case of one thing leading to another, beginning with the sun.
That bright hot thing in the sky up there, thataway —
"Don't be looking right at it, ya idjit! It'll wreck your eyes!"
Oh, I know not to look at the sun without proper eye protection. Anyway, the greater light that God made to rule the day (Gen. 1:16) is obviously a major component in global warming. It does warm this globe and others. What happens from there is a complicated sequence of events that is being considered. Sunspots are less active now, and we're approaching the same kind of condition that was seen at the coldest point of the Little Ice Age.
Sure, we had some global warming, but now we may have some cooling. While models come and go (and we get a mite irritated at hearing about various models), they are often necessary to explain observed data. The sun is a big part of magnetic fields, electricity, cosmic rays, weather and climate. We have a pair of articles to consider that have a great deal of science and math — and they link to in-depth articles for those who are inclined to dig deeper.
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| Sunspots image credit: SOHO, the EIT Consortium, and the MDI Team, but I found it here (Usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) |
"Don't be looking right at it, ya idjit! It'll wreck your eyes!"
Oh, I know not to look at the sun without proper eye protection. Anyway, the greater light that God made to rule the day (Gen. 1:16) is obviously a major component in global warming. It does warm this globe and others. What happens from there is a complicated sequence of events that is being considered. Sunspots are less active now, and we're approaching the same kind of condition that was seen at the coldest point of the Little Ice Age.
Sure, we had some global warming, but now we may have some cooling. While models come and go (and we get a mite irritated at hearing about various models), they are often necessary to explain observed data. The sun is a big part of magnetic fields, electricity, cosmic rays, weather and climate. We have a pair of articles to consider that have a great deal of science and math — and they link to in-depth articles for those who are inclined to dig deeper.
Sunspots are relatively cool blotches on the sun’s surface. The number of sunspots is an indicator of how active the sun is. It has the most sunspots when it’s most active—at solar maximum—and has a slightly higher total energy output during that time. Likewise, the sun has the fewest sunspots at solar minimum. The number of sunspots varies over an 11-year solar cycle. Could there be a connection between sunspot cycles and Earth’s weather and climate? If so, is this relevant to the global warming debate?To read the rest, click on "Cosmic Rays, Sunspots, and Climate Change, Part 1". The next part will be right here waiting for you. Like so:
One layer in Earth’s atmosphere, the ionosphere, is a very good conductor of electricity. Earth’s surface is also a good conductor. Thunderstorms in the low latitudes act as “batteries” that continuously deposit positive electrical charge on the ionosphere. Because of this charge, there is a large potential difference, or voltage, between the ionosphere and Earth’s surface. This voltage is about 250,000 volts, although it can be higher or lower depending on the number of thunderstorms going on at any given time.You can read all of that one by clicking on "Cosmic Rays, Sunspots, and Climate Change, Part 2".