Something new to me; much more about it at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

Of course, it’s the Drake Equation.

From your link:

Volcanic eruptions can alter the climate of the earth for both short and longer periods of time. For example, average global temperatures dropped about 0.5oC for about two years after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, and low air temperatures caused crop failures and famine in North America and Europe for two years following the eruption of Tambora in 1815. Click here to see a list of volcanic eruptions.

Volcanoes affect the climate through the gases and dust particles thrown into the atmosphere during eruptions. The effect of the volcanic gases and dust may warm or cool the earth’s surface, depending on how sunlight interacts with the volcanic material.

Volcanic dust blasted into the atmosphere causes temporary cooling. The amount of cooling depends on the amount of dust, The duration of the cooling depends on the size of the dust particles. Particles the size of sand grains usually fall out of the air in a matter of a few minutes and stay close to the volcano, and therefore have little effect on global climate.

Dust-size ash particles will float around in the lower atmosphere for hours or days, causing darkness and cooling directly beneath the ash cloud, but these particles are quickly washed out of the air by rain. However, dust reaching the dry upper atmosphere, the stratosphere, can remain for weeks or months before they settle back to the planet surface. These particles block sunlight and cause cooling over large areas.

Volcanoes that release large amounts of sulphur compounds like sulphur oxide or sulphur dioxide affect the climate more strongly than other volcanoes mainly ejecting dust. The sulphur compounds usually rise easily into the stratosphere. There they combine with water vapour to form a haze of tiny droplets of sulphuric acid. These tiny droplets are very light in colour and reflect a great deal of incoming sunlight. Although the sulphuric acid droplets eventually may grow large enough to fall to the earth, the stratosphere is so dry that this process usually takes months or even years. Consequently, reflective hazes of sulphur droplets can cause significant global cooling for 2-3 years after a major sulphur-bearing volcanic eruption.

Sulphur hazes are believed to have been the primary cause of the global cooling that occurred after the large Pinatubo (1991; see below) and the Laki (1783-1785) and Tambora eruptions (1815).

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The cooling is a side issue. My interest in this is the effect that volcanoes have on the 10Be deposition and the confusion that causes with regard to solar activity influence on 10Be production.

N=N*fp ne fl fi fc fL

http://www.climate4you.com/ClimateAndVolcanoes.htm

http://s446.photobucket.com/albums/qq187/bobclive/?action=view&current=tamboraandcenglandtemps.jpg

Leif Svalgaard (13:46:15) :
vukcevic (12:17:16) :
Many things wrong here.

Dr. Svalgaard
Perhaps I should have been more precise; I had in mind a “magnetic flux loop” as in
http://www.vukcevic.co.uk/HSC.gif
Charged particles within such a loop (if it does exist) create an obvious bidirectional link between Sun and a magnetosphere. The analogy with a garden sprinkler is not entirely appropriate for such “flux loop”. Although movement of a loop’s front is radial, the loop is locked into a rotating source an as consequence “stretched” backwards along a spiral. However, this is not particularly relevant since propagation time, even from a static source, would still be 0.5 and 1 month approx. If there is a 6-year IHV precursor to sunspot cycles, then I am not aware of a clear explanation, regardless of accuracy of Dr. Hathaway’s predictions. I cannot see any harm in having a go, although I did qualify it: “This may be coincidence and pure speculation”; for the time being I am happy to accept it to be just that and no more.
By the way thanks for the link: http://www.leif.org/research/Rise-and-Fall.pdf I shell read it with a particular interest.

I know, but you didn’t write it that way. I was just having some fun ;)

Nobwainer
The first reference I can find to planetary alignment and sunspots is here
Swinging Sun, 79-Year Cycle, and Climatic Change**
by T. Landscheidt*
PUBLISHED BY SWETS & ZEITLINGER B.V. – LISSE
J. interdiscipl. Cycle Res., 1981, vol. 12, number 1, pp. 3-19

Do you subscribe to this proposed mecahnism OR are you the author??

No Dr. Landscheidt died in 2004, so unless you believe in ghosts i suspect not. I dont subscribe to “this mechanism” but do keep an open mind to the possibility of planetary influence on the Sun. Cycle 24 will most likely prove it either way in my view. I have just taken over a blog that has most of Landscheit’s papers. Check it out at http://landscheidt.auditblogs.com/