79
votes
Why do climate experts from the UN/IPCC rarely mention Grand Solar Minimum?
The IPCC do mentions solar minimums and maximums, as part of extremely careful treatment they do of the reconstructions and predictions for the changes in solar irradiance. The Assessment Report 5, ...
- 17.6k
40
votes
Why do climate experts from the UN/IPCC rarely mention Grand Solar Minimum?
I think the main question has already been answered. But I would like to add to the fallacy that:
History shows solar activity is the main driver of our climate, among other factors.
The Sun is ...
- 401
21
votes
Is there any correlation between Grand Solar Minimums (GSM) and earthquakes?
The main proxy that we have of past solar intensity comes from its proven correlation to the number of sunspots, which have been recorded since the invention of the telescope in the early 1600's. And ...
- 17.6k
16
votes
Accepted
Why wouldn't the earth be "always daytime" if the "daily cycle of sunlight" was drawn full-scale?
The sun is really far away. Thus its rays are essentially parallel at the earth's orbit. So, while the diagram you posted is clearly a bit off in terms of the relative size and distance between the ...
- 11k
14
votes
Accepted
Is Earth getting heavier or lighter?
tl;dr: The Earth receives 40,000 tons of dust from space every year, but looses 95,000 tons of Hydrogen and 1,600 tons of Helium every year as well. After all additional effects are balanced, the ...
- 7,074
13
votes
Accepted
Why don't weather forecast models normally take solar eclipses into account?
Total solar eclipses are rare. Globally, they only happen every 18 months. In any given spot, they are much, much rarer, with a recurrence period of many hundreds of years.
Solar eclipses are ...
- 11.6k
11
votes
Why wouldn't the earth be "always daytime" if the "daily cycle of sunlight" was drawn full-scale?
The sun is about 100 times the size of the Earth (in diameter), and the distance from the sun to Earth is about 100 times the diameter of the sun. Below is an image showing the sun, Earth, and the ...
- 1,207
11
votes
Accepted
What are the sunniest places on Earth? (including oceans)
It is an interesting question, and despite that latitude is the main control of the amount of solar radiation that reaches the top of the atmosphere at a given location, the answer will be determined ...
- 17.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Changes in Earth's orbital and rotation speeds
The Earth moves faster around the Sun when it is near its perihelion (the closest point of its orbit to the Sun). And it moves slower when it is further away (aphelion), just as Kepler realized quite ...
- 17.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Does a geomagnetic storm visibly deflect a compass?
You can definitely see a large geomagnetic storm with a compass, if you have the timing to catch one and the patience to sit and stare for a few minutes.
If you look at these minutely measurements ...
- 891
7
votes
Accepted
Does the Earth 'Flare' like the Sun does?
The medium for a solar flare is plasma, so nothing like that occurs in the Earth's core. The outer core fluid is highly conductive and has a low viscosity, so changes may occur in the core's field, ...
- 288
7
votes
Why wouldn't the earth be "always daytime" if the "daily cycle of sunlight" was drawn full-scale?
But if you scale up the Sun to it's real size compared to the Earth,
Is pretty big. But then to be realistic in that manner you would also have to scale up the distance from the earth to the sun.
...
- 171
7
votes
Why don't weather forecast models normally take solar eclipses into account?
Doesn't look like the ECMWF does.
Perhaps part of it has to do with the fact the weather changes due to eclipses are usually fairly friendly/tame. This GOES 16 satellite loop from the southeast US ...
- 8,713
7
votes
Why don't weather forecast models normally take solar eclipses into account?
In addition to the rarity, there is also the problem of additional computations. To find out if there is a solar eclipse, you need extra calculations. Since the introduction of additional calculations ...
- 8,684
7
votes
Accepted
Calculate the maximum power angle of a solar panel (photovoltaics)
This question can be answered in many different ways that take into account, or ignore, the many factors that affect the total output of a fix solar panel over a year.
In general, all answers will ...
- 17.6k
6
votes
Accepted
Where is the Arctic Circle for civil and astronomical twilight?
As mentioned by Barry in the comments, you just have to substract 6 degrees of latitude to get the ring around areas were it never gets DARKER than civil twilight or darker for 24 or more hours (or 12°...
- 17.6k
6
votes
Why wouldn't the earth be "always daytime" if the "daily cycle of sunlight" was drawn full-scale?
Given the known average distance to the Sun, and the radii of Sun and Earth, the basic trigonometry is simple.
If the Earth and Sun were exactly the same size, and there was no atmospheric refraction,...
- 14.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Could we cool the ocean by reflecting away sunlight to influence hurricanes?
Water has a large thermal capacity.
which is why the temperature change between seasons is gradual rather than sudden, especially near the oceans.
For water to lose heat time is required. By ...
- 24.6k
5
votes
Accepted
How can we calculate the temperature of the atmosphere, including the greenhouse effect?
One can account for greenhouse gas effect for Earth's temperature in simple energy balance model in following manner.
Assume that fraction $f$ of longwave radiation emitted by Earth's surface is ...
- 797
5
votes
What would a graph of magnitude >7.5 earthquakes over last 400 years compared to Grand Solar Minimums look like?
As others have pointed already in the comments, there is no earthquake data extending that far back. But we do have data for the last century. In a similar way to my answer to this question. Here I've ...
- 17.6k
5
votes
Effective Temperature of a Planet and Surface Temperature due to Greenhouse Effect
I think you’re not far off with your understanding, but maybe I can put in a few comments to make things clearer.
I often get confused because most diagrams for the Earth energy budget and net ...
- 3,940
5
votes
Solar irradiance/radiation difference
Technically (at least in solar energy industry):
Irradiance is the instant power of solar radiation per unit area, it is measured in W/m2 (it is instantaneous, therefore no time dimension in the ...
- 171
4
votes
What are the sunniest places on Earth? (including oceans)
1) No, there are many places in the ocean that receive more sunlight hours than many deserts. For instance, the west coasts of southern Africa and central South America. These locations are ...
- 348
4
votes
Accepted
Is there an atmospheric hydrogen cycle?
"Is there any interaction between the Earth's atmosphere and high velocity protons in the solar wind (e.g. protons combining with atmospheric oxygen to form hydroxide) which is capable of balancing ...
- 2,369
4
votes
Accepted
Term for the thing that shines radiation onto a black body
The Sun is also regarded as a black body. Any body that radiates energy following Planck's law of black-body radiation, and absorbes energy at all wavelengths can be considered as a black body. This ...
- 17.6k
4
votes
Why is March colder than September in Northern Hemisphere?
It mainly depends on where you are "coming from," rather than where you are "going to."
In September, you are "coming from" a hot summer. The earth has been hot recently, and will take some time to ...
- 2,234
4
votes
Accepted
Would a global cooling event disable solar energy usage?
I am not sure about the size of Krakatoa eruption but the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in Indonesia around 12th June 1991 is considered as the largest eruption in the past 100 years. Global average of ...
- 797
4
votes
Accepted
Convert satellite image data (GOES 15) into solar irradiance values?
It is far too complex a process to estimate surface irradiances utilising satellite data. No software takes just satellite images as input and gives out irradiances.
I am pasting link to an article ...
- 797
4
votes
Accepted
Solar irradiance/radiation difference
Solar irradiation is a measure of the energy delivered by the sun per unit area, watts or joules per square metre for example.. It is often recorded over a specific time period, so it is very much to ...
- 4,695
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible