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"Global climate change needs global
action now. The alarm bells ought to be ringing in every capital of the world"
John Gummer, British Environment Secretary
The amount of heat and the sunspot activity can have
a great effect on our climate. Increase in energy by
the sun
will increase our
temperatures while a decrease in energy will have the reverse effect. The
effects of sunspots is still under debate but many scientist believe it does
have some effect on our climate. "The Sun's energy output (3.86e33
ergs/second
or 386 billion billion megawatts) is produced by
nuclear fusion
reactions. Each second about 700,000,000 tons of
hydrogen are converted
to about 695,000,000 tons of helium and 5,000,000 tons (=3.86e33 ergs)
of energy in the form of gamma rays. As it travels out toward the
surface, the energy is continuously absorbed and re-emitted at lower and
lower temperatures so that by the time it reaches the surface, it is
primarily visible light. For the last 20% of the way to the surface the
energy is carried more by
convection
than by radiation."
Source:
Sun
"Until recently, many scientists
thought that the Sun's output of radiation only
varied by a fraction of a percent over many
years. However, measurements made by satellites
equipped with
radiometers in the 1980s and 1990s
suggested that the
Sun's energy output may be more variable
than was once thought... Measurements made
during the early 1980s showed a decrease of 0.1
percent in the total amount of solar energy
reaching the Earth over just an 18 month time
period. If this trend were to extend over
several decades, it could influence global
climate. Numerical climatic models predict that
a change in solar output of only 1 percent per
century would alter the Earth's average
temperature by between 0.5 to 1.0° Celsius."
Source:
PhysicalGeogaphy.net
