CU-NASA Research Center to Study Sun’s Effects on Earth’s Climate
Image of sun courtesy of NASA. |
The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., today announced the formation of a new collaborative research center dedicated to the study of the sun’s effect on Earth’s climate.
The center, called the Sun-Climate Research Center, or SCRC, will be co-directed by LASP Research Scientist Peter Pilewskie as well as Robert Cahalan, who heads Goddard’s Climate and Radiation Branch, and Douglas Rabin, head of Goddard’s Solar Physics Laboratory.
“The exciting thing about this collaboration is that we believe it will promote studies to help answer key questions about the climate system, including how Earth’s atmosphere responds to the sun’s variability and how that affects climate,” said Pilewskie, a faculty member in CU-Boulder’s atmospheric and oceanic sciences department. “This question is particularly important now as we seek to quantify the human-induced impact on Earth’s climate.”
Made possible by a Federal Space Act Agreement, SCRC will foster collaboration between Earth-atmosphere and solar sciences at the two institutions. Opportunities will include a scientist exchange program between the organizations and the ability for postdoctoral scientists and graduate students in science, engineering and mission operations to move between LASP and Goddard. The partnership also will include international research symposia on sun-climate interactions.
“In recent years Goddard and LASP have worked together on several Earth and sun missions,” said Cahalan. “Now we look forward to continuing to drive growth in this key interdisciplinary field of sun-Earth research, bringing new focus to the study of multiyear changes in the sun and its influence on Earth’s climate.”
According to the center’s co-directors, the SCRC represents a rare and innovative step that underscores LASP’s ability to take its high-caliber research and program opportunities to a new level with Goddard.
“LASP has developed some remarkable areas of expertise that are key to studying the sun and its effect on climate and on human activities,” said LASP Director Daniel Baker. “By working with our colleagues at Goddard, we can leverage our skills and help take an important step toward greater cooperation between NASA centers and leading university research teams.”
For more information on LASP visit lasp.colorado.edu/home/. For more information on NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center visit www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html.
Leif Svalgaard says:
November 30, 2010 at 8:15 am
The influence [if any] of Sun on climate was recently reviewed here:
The SOLAR INFLUENCES ON CLIMATE paper seems to have a rather myopic and one sided definition of solar influences… I searched in vain for the following words: Milankovitch, eccentricity, precession, axial, tilt, obliquity… and of course there no reference to the word Corbyn…
What has the Sun ever done for us
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExWfh6sGyso&fs=1&hl=en_US]
“”””” The Ghost Of Big Jim Cooley says:
November 30, 2010 at 5:13 am
Why do Americans say ‘Center’, and not ‘Centre’, when they are happy saying ‘Tire’ and not ‘Tier’? Just a thought from a Englishman. “””””
Well Americans are more phonetic than you Englishmen. For example what Englishmen will simply sluff off as “chumley” ; an American; following his phonetic instincts, will say “chol-mon-de-ley”.
So “center” sounds like “sen-ter” while “centre” looks like its French, so Yanks might say “sen-tray”.
And you blokes say “shedule”; but Americans say “skedule”; it’s pretty simple you see because we have a better “shool” system than you do.
But we use “tire” instead of “tyre” because that’s really a place name.
My initial response was cynical – the foxes are being invited to control the hen house. Upon further consideration, I’m convinced the sole purpose is to debunk skeptics and marginalize the dominate energy source in our solar system and Earth’s climate system. We know that if our sun vanished, we would begin to cool rapidly in 8 minutes, and freeze solid in less than a month. How can anyone think that energy source could possibly impact our climate? Duh! This collaboration is BS from the outset!
Bill Yarber
Well I would first off try to discover the effect of the sun on weather, because you can do that a lot quicker, and for less money; but these chaps are after a life long gravy train; and if you work for the gummint, then 30 years is about as long as anyone wants to work; and that is exactly one climate cycle. So with only one observed climate cycle, you can’t reach any conclusions; so you can pass the project off to your offspring, and have them do another cycle on the taxpayer’s backs.
I can see that the way to cure government largess, is to simply require that ALL government employees; Federal, State or Local, shall have the exact same retirement age, as the Full Social Security retirement age. So the present government retirement age would be 66 going up to 69 in a few years. Oh I would let them retire earlier, in fact encourage them to; but they wouldn’t be able to collect any taxpayer funded retirement pay until they were 66, or whatever the current SS retirement age was.
But I wouldn’t mind studying the effect of the sun on climate; I have a nice location down in the Loreto Bay region of Baja California Sur, that is a perfect place to do some sun-climate research, along with oceanography, and piscatorial biology.
The rats are jumping the sinking SS-C02 ship and jumping aboard another ship called the SS-Money the Second.
“NASA Research Center to Study Sun’s Effects on Earth’s Climate”
Now there’s an idea, and we’re only 25 years into the CO2-warming alarm. Their mission: how to acknowledge, as the earth cools, that global temperature IS driven by solar activity, without acknowledging that the evidence for this has been obvious since the Maunder Minimum, strong since 91 (Friis-Christensen and Lassen), and overwheming for the past ten years (as isotope studies have allowed a solar proxy to be read from core samples and compared to temperature signatures).
“But nobody could have known!” will be their lying mantra. “After all, we only started looking at the sun-climate relation in 2010!”
I too followed tallblokes link and found the following
“John Beddington said: “Our economies and societies are increasingly vulnerable to hazardous weather and climatic changes. ”
Really? Why’s that then? Are hurricanes increasing ? – no. Are sea level rises accelerating ?- no. Has the Earth [warmed] more than one degree C in the last hundred years? – no. Has there been any statistically significant warming since 1998? – no. Is global sea ice catastrophically collapsing? – no.
Perhaps Beddington believes then that increasingly more prosperous societies (and we are all of us more prosperous than in the past, to paraphrase Matt Ridley) are increasingly less capable of coping with change, when all the evidence points to the contrary.
Just look at the devestation wreaked on Haiti by earthquakes and cholera and compare that with how other more prosperous countries face up to challenges.
Beddington’s rent-a-quote comment makes no sense at all.
Malaga View says:
November 30, 2010 at 9:22 am
The SOLAR INFLUENCES ON CLIMATE paper seems to have a rather myopic and one sided definition of solar influences… I searched in vain for the following words: Milankovitch, eccentricity, precession, axial, tilt, obliquity… and of course there no reference to the word Corbyn…
Because the things you were looking for have nothing to do with the sun’s influence on climate, anymore than me moving into the shadow to avoid the midday heat or it being colder at night than during the day. You could better talk about the influence of the earth’s orbital parameters and orientation.
The influence of Corbyn on climate is pretty small too.
Definately sounds like another smokescreen to me.
However, I think it should be rammed home into the alarmists faces at every opportunity that the science CANNOT be settled, otherwise why would they be doing this? I mean, you dont go looking at something that supposedly has nothing to do with the climate? do you?
I agree with some of the other comments though, that the results may well be somewhat pre-written!
The only good thing is that whatever ‘they’ do, it will take some more time, and the longer they take, the more likely it will be that ‘cooling’ will be seen and the sham exposed.
Great breakthroughs in science have always been made by individuals not by societies, less by social masses and the least still by bureaucrats.
So keep on your research because “The people united will always be cheated”
Maybe they are setting up a new gravy train to transfer themselves onto. What’s the old saying, ” never quit your job till you have a new one. ” Who knows, maybe they will give up the AGW hoax and launch a NEW new doomsday scenario. What ever the new one is, I’m sure the solution will be the same. Always is..
My son went to UC Boulder for one semester in aerospace eng., got a 4 point and switched to U WY, Laramie as Boulder was so liberal that he could not stand it. Cost me a bunch of $$ as he gave up a full ride to WY to go there. Unless they are looking to the future possible funding that is not AGW centered, as noted by some here, my bet is the same old same old.
Bob Tisdale,
If you can prove that go right ahead..
A link to the Grantham Prize for “Top Environmental Reporting” appeared at the top of my Gmail. The winner receives $75,000.
What a shame Anthony will never see a penny of it, despite being one of the best environmental reporters out there. Of course, we all know that whoever wins, it will be for some party-line story on the “environmental crisis” and the need to stop global warming.
On the other hand, maybe we can submit Anthony. It can’t hurt.
All that I can see, is a super computer designer rubbing his hands in gleeful anticipation.
They’ll also need a couple of land based observers. Now there’s a thought. I am sure that I had a bit of smoked glass around here somewhere.
Maybe the United Nations Organization has its sites set on a Global Sunbeam Exchange Commission. I’ll bet they’re tangling together a net of Sun Regional Commissions, Sun Inter-agency Commissions, Sun Inter-institutional Cooperations, Sun Functioning Commissions, Sun Expert Bodies, Sun Ad hoc Working Groups, Sun Ad Hoc Advisory groups, Sun Standing Committees, Sun Councils, Sun Fact-finding Missions, Sun Integrated Non-governmental Organizations, Sun Steering Groups, Sun Summits, Sun Initiatives, Sun Forums, Sun Secretariats, Sun Programmes, Sun Declarations, Sun Summits, Sun Initiatives, Sun Conferences, Sun Steering Groups, Departments of Sun, Offices of Sun and Sun Partnerships with Goldman Sachs et al. For all that, we’ll get a SunScam.
Where’s the hockey stick for the sun? Can’t be science without a hockey stick! Bet the the sun block manufacturers are financing this. Where do I buy solar cap and trade credits?
BTW – Great post on variables, ARW!
Leif Svalgaard says:
November 30, 2010 at 9:50 am
Because the things you were looking for have nothing to do with the sun’s influence on climate…
That was my point about the paper being myopic… it is a bit like writing a paper about CARPET BOMBING IN VIETNAM from the perspective of the pilot… well you see some flashes on the ground… the fuel economy of the engines improves because the bomber is lighter… and, of course, our top speed increases too…
See where I am coming from?
George E. Smith says:
November 30, 2010 at 9:22 am
Which other Mac Entire are we talking about? The CA version, I trust?
Regards,
Perry
The answer is blowing in the wind.
Leif Svalgaard says:
November 30, 2010 at 8:15 am
The influence [if any] of Sun on climate was recently reviewed here:
http://www.leif.org/EOS/2010GL045109.pdf
Many years of cold winters lie ahead
CLIMATE: WE ARE likely to experience several years of colder winters with more frequent cold spells similar to the current conditions, according to a UK climate expert.
The change comes as a result of a link between the sun and the high altitude jet stream winds, explained Prof MIKE LOCKWOOD of the department of meteorology at the University of Reading.
He and colleagues have established a link between low solar activity and a phenomenon known as “jet stream blocking”.
The big thing people need to appreciate is the weather they experience on a local or a regional scale is not the same thing as global temperatures,” he said.
“Our colder winters mean almost nothing in terms of global averages. That is why climate change is a better term than global warming.”
IT`S THE SUN THAT DONE IT.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1130/1224284431435.html?via=rel
Malaga View says:
November 30, 2010 at 10:53 am
That was my point about the paper being myopic
The influence on Earth parameters on climate is not really in doubt. The influence of Sun [its activity that is] is what was discussed explicitly: “[1] Understanding the influence of solar variability on the Earth’s climate requires knowledge of solar variability…”, so the myopic view was deliberate, called it ‘focused’ if you will.
Leif Svalgaard says:
November 30, 2010 at 9:50 am
Hahaha!
You are joking, no?
“We want to study the sun but the cash has run out!”
“Got any of those `in respect of catastrophic man-made global broiling` sticky labels left?”
“Yep”
“Ok, stick `em all over the project,and submit it”
KER CHING!!!!!
Game on!!!!
(I was never this cynical….look what they`ve done to me!).
bubbagyro says:
November 30, 2010 at 11:19 am
Hahaha! You are joking, no?
Not at all. There is a difference between an intrinsically variable sun [and that was the topic of the paper] and the amount of sunlight hitting you [and that depends on you and your environment even if the sun were completely constant]. So, no joke.