[Atmob-discuss] The Sun also Sets

Fri Feb 15 11:33:43 EST 2008

Not sure if this post is in regard to my mention of  Earth Hour 2008 at last 
night's meeting. Yes, interesting article.  I have received comments from 
others about the controversial global warming debate, the thrust behind 
Earth Hour '08.   The point is regardless of whether or not we prescribe to 
the global warming theory, I think we can all agree that light pollution is 
a result of energy waste - and it is having an increasingly deleterious 
effect on our night skies.  Light pollution is something we can and should 
champion against if we want to preserve the night sky/natural environment 
for future generations - not to mention this generation!

Earth Hour 2008 www.earthhour.org is an opportunity to encourage other folks 
to make the connection about energy waste, light pollution and preservation 
of our night skies.  If Earth Hour isn't your thing.  Go to National Dark 
Sky Week, which kicks off that same week   www.ndsw.org

Clear Dark Skies,
Virginia

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Blomquist" <jonb at net1plus.com>
To: <Atmob-discuss at atmob.org>
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 11:07 AM
Subject: [Atmob-discuss] The Sun also Sets

Hi all;
    I found this message on the solar observers group and thought, although
it's a little lengthy, that with all the discussion about global warming you
might want to read it as well.  It's very thought provoking.

John.

> The Sun Also Sets
>
> By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, February 07, 2008
4:20 PM PT
>
> Climate Change: Not every scientist is part of Al
> Gore's mythical "consensus." Scientists worried
> about a new ice age seek funding to better
> observe something bigger than your SUV  the sun.
>
> Related Topics:
> <http://www.ibdeditorials.com/FeaturedCategories.aspx?
sid=1802>Global Warming
>
> Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that
> the Earth was in the balance, the Danish
> Meteorological Institute released a study using
> data that went back centuries that showed that
> global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles.
>
> To many, those data were convincing. Now,
> Canadian scientists are seeking additional
> funding for more and better "eyes" with which to
> observe our sun, which has a bigger impact on
> Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and smokestacks on our
planet combined.
>
> And they're worried about global cooling, not warming.
>
> Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project
> director for Canada's National Research Council,
> is among those looking at the sun for evidence of
> an increase in sunspot activity.
>
> Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle.
> But so far in this cycle, the sun has been
> disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased
> activity could signal the beginning of what is
> known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs
> every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.
>
> Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The
> observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily
> low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.
>
> This solar hibernation corresponded with a period
> of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted,
> with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715.
> Frigid winters and cold summers during that
> period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern
Europe.
>
> Tapping reports no change in the sun's magnetic
> field so far this cycle and warns that if the sun
> remains quiet for another year or two, it may
> indicate a repeat of that period of drastic
> cooling of the Earth, bringing massive snowfall
> and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere.
>
> Tapping oversees the operation of a 60-year-old
> radio telescope that he calls a "stethoscope for
> the sun." But he and his colleagues need better equipment.
>
> In Canada, where radio-telescopic monitoring of
> the sun has been conducted since the end of World
> War II, a new instrument, the next-generation
> solar flux monitor, could measure the sun's
> emissions more rapidly and accurately.
>
> As we have noted many times, perhaps the biggest
> impact on the Earth's climate over time has been the sun.
>
> For instance, researchers at the Max Planck
> Institute for Solar Research in Germany report
> the sun has been burning more brightly over the
> last 60 years, accounting for the 1 degree
> Celsius increase in Earth's temperature over the last 100 years.
>
> R. Timothy Patterson, professor of geology and
> director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center
> of Canada's Carleton University, says that "CO2
> variations show little correlation with our
> planet's climate on long, medium and even short time scales."
>
> Rather, he says, "I and the first-class
> scientists I work with are consistently finding
> excellent correlations between the regular
> fluctuations of the sun and earthly climate. This
> is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the
> ultimate source of energy on this planet."
>
> Patterson, sharing Tapping's concern, says:
> "Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun
> will be starting into its weakest Schwabe cycle
> of the past two centuries, likely leading to
> unusually cool conditions on Earth."
>
> "Solar activity has overpowered any effect that
> CO2 has had before, and it most likely will
> again," Patterson says. "If we were to have even
> a medium-sized solar minimum, we could be looking
> at a lot more bad effects than 'global warming' would have had."
>
> In 2005, Russian astronomer Khabibullo
> Abdusamatov made some waves  and not a few
> enemies in the global warming "community"  by
> predicting that the sun would reach a peak of
> activity about three years from now, to be
> accompanied by "dramatic changes" in temperatures.
>
> A Hoover Institution Study a few years back
> examined historical data and came to a similar conclusion.
>
> "The effects of solar activity and volcanoes are
> impossible to miss. Temperatures fluctuated
> exactly as expected, and the pattern was so clear
> that, statistically, the odds of the correlation
> existing by chance were one in 100," according to
> Hoover fellow Bruce Berkowitz.
>
> The study says that "try as we might, we simply
> could not find any relationship between
> industrial activity, energy consumption and changes in global
temperatures."
>
> The study concludes that if you shut down all the
> world's power plants and factories, "there would
> not be much effect on temperatures."
>
> But if the sun shuts down, we've got a problem.
> It is the sun, not the Earth, that's hanging in the balance.
>
>
> NASA / JPL Solar System Ambassador
>
> Owner,
> DayStar Filters LLC - www.DayStarFilters.com
> ICSTARS Astronomy - www.ICSTARS.com
> StarGarden Foundation - www.StarGardenFoundation.org

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