Given that the sun is so quiet lately (click image – no sunspots) and there is talk of an ebb in its next solar cycle 24, it bears looking into the details of our primary climate driver.
The National Geographic Channel has a TV special on the sun, sunspots, climate, etc. They interviewed several people involved in that debate. It includes interviews with Judith Lean, Leif Svalgaard, and others.
It will be shown on the National Geographic Channel. It’s titled: Naked Science ‘Solar Force’.
It goes out on Tuesday 30th October 2007 at 9pm ET and again at midnight ET.
It also rebroadcasts on Thursday 1st November 2007 at 10pm ET.
TV listings can be found on http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/ if you are interested.
UPDATE: description from the NGC website –
The suns energy seems to be constant, but this gigantic nuclear reactor is in a continual state of flux. National Geographic Channel (NGC) reveals the latest scientific information that is uncovering the hidden ways that fluctuations in the suns output influence our climate. See how a radical experiment supports the idea that the suns invisible cosmic rays may have a visible impact on our weather, and find out how a new NASA program could shed new light on how solar wind impacts Earth.
[…] ds10@users.sourceforge.net (ds10) wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe National Geographic Channel has a TV special on the sun, sunspots, climate, etc. They interviewed several people involved in that debate. It includes interviews with Judith Lean, Leif Svalgaard, and others. … […]
This will be interesting; National Geo generally drinks the Kool-aid on the CO2 theroy of AGW.
Cycle 24 where aaaaare you?
22 days without a sunspot. No sign of #24 starting anytime soon. Very, very quiet….
The consensus view has the new Cycle 24 starting in March of 2008. See http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/SC24/index.html It is quiet right now. This is a “long” solar minimum. We may have a low solar maximum in cycle 24. But it is not late….
pretty interesting show, except “global warming is an undisputed fact” and “man is causing the recent rise in temperature” and “the sun is the primary driver for climate”. oops, my head just exploded.
That consensus “view” was changed after #24 failed to start early 2007. The problem is, we haven’t see the signs of #23 coming to a final conclusion (reverse magnetic sunspots). And when those happen, #24 is still months away from starting.
The NGC special was OK, could have done a better job on a few things, and of course made refderence to the undisputable warming man has caused.
And, boy howdy, did they drag out some U-G-L-Y people to interview for that special. Wowzers….
and of course made refderence (sic) to the undisputable warming man has caused.
Matt, how much of the warming experienced over the last century or so has been undisputably caused by man? And since it is “indisputable”, I assume you have “indisputable proof” that you would be willing to share with the rest of us.
Sounded to me like Mattn had his tongue in cheek for that comment.
I found an astronomer who claims that the sun hasn’t shown spots since Aug. 9th.
http://blog.iomastronomy.org/blog/_archives/2007/8/15/3160583.html#attachments
His site consists of interesting astro photos he has taken with his own equipment, mostly pix of sunspots. See the thing is sunspots are one of the easiest targets for an amateur. This guy is fastidious.(I know the type) If there were sunspots available he would have imaged them. This lends credence to his claim. I beleive him.
No spots since Aug 9th means 81 days.
Yep, tongue in cheek….
Sorry, Matt. If I’d seen the program I probably would have picked up on your intent.