Solar Activity Variations and Possible Effects on Climate

Abstract

The Earth’s climate expresses the combined response of the atmosphere, the oceans and the continents to the energy that is received from the Sun. Any variation in the energy received at the Earth or radiated away from the Earth, and any change in the distribution of the energy over the Earth’s surface may have an effect on climate. Precise measurements of the total irradiance of the Sun, the solar “constant” has indeed shown that there is a small variation of the order of 0.1 per cent during the solar cycle. Other manifestations of solar activity have even larger relative variations during the solar cycle. This applies to the UV radiation, the X-rays, the high-energy particles from the Sun, and the extension of the solar corona, the solar wind. The various manifestations of solar activity may each have an impact, small or large, on our surroundings and even on our closest surroundings, the troposphere.