A clear (claimed) link between sunspot cycles and Earth weather seems like fairly big news – especially considering that changes in the sun have been largely rejected as appreciable reasons for recent, longterm climate warming. It is not, however, getting much pickup so far. A research team led by a man from tiny Paul Smith’s College, up in the New York Adirondacks, reports in the Journal of Geophysical Research that East African rainfall patterns have a distinct modulation in step with sunspot cycles.
At The Register (UK), Lucy Sherriff spotted it and ties it to another report, from Geophysical Research Letters, concluding that solar cycles do have a measurable impact on global temperature, even if not nearly enough to explain away anthropogenic global warming. She also says Paul Smith’s College has boffins. That may surprise folks in upstate New York.
Sunspots, while themselves cool and dark compared to the rest of the sun, peak every 11 years or so when the sun overall is more active and more radiant. The new paper reports that high sunspot counts go with rainier weather in East Africa. That may give local authorities a clue to when to prepare for flood and, perhaps more important, for diseases carried by mosquitoes and other insects that breed faster when water and vegetation are high. The heavier rain seems to precede the solar maximum by about a year. The next peak is in three or four years. Apparently, correlations between Lake Victoria’s height and sunspots have been asserted for years. The new, deeper data analysis backs that up. This one seems to merit a longer look by the larger news outlets.
Pic, of L.Victoria sunset, found here.
-CP
Other Stories:
SciDevNet Kimani Chege; CBC (Canada); Adirondack Daily Enterprise;
Grist for the Mill:
NSF Press Release; Amer. Geophysical Union – Paul Smith’s College Press Release;
Somewhat related news: SciDevNet has another interesting weather science report from Paula Leighton: Fog helps crops thrive in Chile.
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