Climate: how unusual is today's solar activity?
To put global warming into context requires knowledge about past changes in solar activity and the role of the Sun in climate change. Solanki et al. propose that solar activity during recent decades was exceptionally high compared with that over the preceding 8,000 years. However, our extended analysis of the radiocarbon record reveals several periods during past centuries in which the strength of the magnetic field in the solar wind was similar to, or even higher than, that of today.
Muscheler
Raimund
R
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, Paleoclimatology, Boulder, Colorado 80305-3000, USA. raimund@ucar.edu
Joos
Fortunat
F
Müller
Simon A
SA
Snowball
Ian
I
D001272:Atmosphere / Q000737:chemistry; D002138:Calibration; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D005580:Fossils; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D007053:Ice / Q000032:analysis; D008280:Magnetics; D019110:Meteoroids; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019445:Solar Activity; D013997:Time Factors
D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D007053:Ice; D002244:Carbon