Solar total irradiance variations and the global sea surface temperature record

Journal Article · Wed Feb 20 04:00:00 EST 1991 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/90JD02274· OSTI ID:5513457

Reid, G C ^[1]

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1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, CO (USA) Univ. of Colorado, Boulder (USA)

The record of globally averaged sea surface temperature (SST) over the past 130 years shows a highly significant correlation with the envelope of the 11-year cycle of solar activity over the same period. This correlation could be explained by a variation in the sun's total irradiance (the solar constant) that is in phase with the solar-cycle envelope, supporting and updating an earlier conclusion by Eddy (1976) that such variations could have played a major role in climate change over the past millennium. Measurements of the total irradiance from spacecraft, rockets, and balloons over the past 25 years have provided evidence of long-term variations and have been used to develop a simple linear relationship between irradiance and the envelope of the sunspot cycle. This relationship has been used to force a one-dimensional model of the thermal structure of the ocean, consisting of a 100-m mixed layer coupled to a deep ocean and including a thermohaline circulation. The model was started in the mid-seventeenth century, at the time of the Maunder Minimum of solar activity, and mixed-layer temperatures were calculated at 6-month intervals up to the present. The total range of irradiance values during the period was about 1%, and the total range of SST was about 1C. Cool periods, when temperatures were about 0.5C below present-day values, were found in the early decades of both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The results can be taken as indicating that solar variability has been an important contributor to global climate variations in recent decades. The growing atmospheric burden of greenhouse gases may well have played an important role in the immediate past.

• OSTI ID: 5513457
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States) Vol. 96:D2; ISSN 0148-0227; ISSN JGREA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540110*
540310 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Basic Studies-- (1990-)
AIRSHIPS
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
BALLOONS
CLIMATES
CORRELATIONS
FLUCTUATIONS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MEASURING METHODS
MORPHOLOGY
OCEANIC CIRCULATION
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
PALEOTEMPERATURE
RADIATIONS
ROCKETS
SEAS
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR CYCLE
SOLAR RADIATION
SPACE VEHICLES
STELLAR RADIATION
SURFACE WATERS
VARIATIONS
VEHICLES