Anyone who has lived in the Pikes Peak Region for more than 20 years can recall the ìgood old daysî of local weather.Summers were pleasantly warm, with high temperatures reaching into the 80s or 90s, not the 100s; and, during the so-called monsoon season, rain showers could be expected just about every afternoon.Winters offered more sunny days than snowy ones, with any significant snowfall quickly melting. Sure, there were the occasional thunderstorms that pounded cars with hail the size of golf balls or spawned a twister or two; and many long-timers can tell stories of blizzards that stranded people for days. But those were the anomalies, not the usual weather fare. Then, along came climate change.Information gleaned from http://climate.gov indicates that global average temperatures have steadily increased in the 20th century, especially since the early 1980s. Scientists agree that the planetary climate is changing, but they donít always agree on the reasons why.The topic of global climate change, specifically global warming, is controversial; primarily because of the focus on human activity as a cause for the Earthís rising temperatures. But one aspect of climate change often overlooked in media reports is the effect of the sunís activity on the Earthís climate and weather systems.In January 2013, the National Research Council released a report titled ìThe Effects of Solar Variability on Earth’s Climate.î Researchers are finding that even tiny variations in the sunís energy output can significantly affect Earthís climate ñ more so than previously thought. And since the sun goes through cyclic periods of activity, it seems only logical that global weather patterns could follow those cycles.ìA lot of people take the sun for granted and don’t take into account the effect it has,î said Scott McIntosh, a researcher with the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colo.The sun has weather, just like Earth, said Cyrus Freeman, U.S. Air Force Space Operations Specialist. But because it is a giant fusion reactor, the weather runs from the core of the sun all the way to the edges of the solar system. About every 11 years, the sun goes through a cycle, the ends of which are defined by a solar maximum and a solar minimum, Freeman said. During the minimum, the sun is relatively quiet; for example, there are fewer sunspots, fewer ejections of material in the form of plasma and reduced overall output. ìThe sun actually gets dimmer,î he said. The exact opposite occurs at solar maximum, in which the sun is more violent in activity.Eleven years is an average figure. Cycles can vary between 10 and 13 years, according to NASA’s website. George Ellery Hale, an astronomer, proved the solar cycle is a magnetic phenomenon, giving physical evidence to the observed phenomenon. This magnetic cycle averages 22 years.According to NASA, the magnetic fields within the sun rotate once every 22 years. In other words, the poles switch. Think of holding a bar magnet and rotating it slowly ñ taking 22 years to do so. There will actually be a strong magnetic pull once every 11 years: once as the North Pole swings by ñ and once as the South Pole swings by. Because each swing of the pole creates the same basic effect, it is referred to as an 11-year cycle. This solar cycle closely affects weather. As the sun gets brighter during a solar maximum, the weather on Earth, on average, gets hotter. There is a correlation between a lack of sunspots and dry weather. It is only a correlation, and scientists don’t fully understand the mechanism behind it. It is an ìunresolved area of research,î per NASA.Freeman said that while the sun’s brightness has a tremendous effect on the Earth’s weather, the Earth’s weather and geological events have an effect on how much sunlight hits the ground. Sunlight that reflects off particles in the atmosphere doesn’t warm the Earth that much. For example, cooler temperatures were observed when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991.NASA uses some concrete examples within recent history to show where people might have observed effects of solar activity without realizing it. During solar maximums, auroras are brighter, more frequent and can be seen farther south. Someone witnessed an aurora in Colorado Springs in November 2004, during the last solar maximum. There have also been sightings in Colorado during this year and last year. In May this year, there were reports of northern lights in Colorado; 2013 is the expected peak for solar maximum during this particular cycle.Periods when there aren’t many sunspots seem to correlate with dry weather. The sunspot count seems to be down right now, and we have been experiencing dryer weather. McIntosh said the sun ìhas been doing some really weird stuff over the past 35 years.î He said the sun’s activity peaked in the 1950s, and since has been declining. There are large fluctuations in the amount of heat the sun puts out. ìIt is tricky going back in time, but the records do show very long variability,î McIntosh said.It has been a long time since the sun ìtook a breakî during the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715), McIntosh said. During this time, there was widespread dry weather; consequently, wheat prices increased significantly. It was also colder during this period. During the Dalton Minimum (1790-1830), the weather was cooler, and the average global temperature cooled by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. In 1816, there was snow in every month almost everywhere in the USA. In 1975, the cooler temperatures correlated with a solar minimum.There is direct correlation between weather and the activity of the sun, but that is not all there is to weather changes. There is much scientists still have to learn about weather cycles, both on Earth and on the sun, and what causes them. ìThe sun seems to be having a bit of a funk,î McIntosh said. ìThe underlying reason we’re not sure of. It is an incredibly complex system; it’s all symbiotic, and you don’t know the chicken from the egg. It points to how intrinsically unpredictable things are.îWebsites cited:http://climate.govhttp://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/01mar_twinpeaks/http://hao.ucar.edu/education/bios/hale.phphttp://nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/solarcycle-primer.htmlhttp://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=56217)
