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Lives of the Planets A Natural History of the Solar System Written By: Richard Corfield

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These intense magnetic fields inhibit the convection of extremely hot material ... thus resulting in them having lower temperatures that give them their coloring. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Lives of the Planets A Natural History of the Solar System Written By: Richard Corfield


1
Lives of the PlanetsA Natural History of the
Solar SystemWritten By Richard Corfield
Presented By Bryndis Cruz
2
Topic of Choice
Sunspots The Effect They Have On Earths Climate
3
Background Information On Sunspots
  • Sunspots are areas where strong magnetic fields
    emerge from the suns surface.
  • They usually occur in pairs of opposite polarity
    and are linked by loops of magnetic field.
  • These intense magnetic fields inhibit the
    convection of extremely hot material from the
    interior thus resulting in them having lower
    temperatures that give them their coloring.

SOHO (ESA NASA)
4
Continued
  • Sunspots have an umbra (central region) and a
    penumbra (outer halo).
  • The spots tend to cluster in zones about 30
    north or south of the suns equator.
  • They can last as little as a few days or as long
    as a few months.
  • More sunspots enable fewer cosmic rays to hit our
    stratosphere, meaning fewer clouds and less
    reflectance of sunlight.

5
Now A Little History
  • Heinrich Schwabe was the first to notice that
    there was a regular variation in the number of
    sunspots. He estimated that the frequency of
    them increased and decreased in a cycle of about
    a decade.

Wikipedia
Johann Rudolf Wolf refined that number to 11.1
years. His way to quantify sunspot activity is
still used today (The Wolfer Number).
Matematycy.interklasa.pl
6
Our Climate
  • Studies of weather station data between 1861 and
    1989 show a very high degree of correlation
    between the number of sunspots and the mean
    annual temperature of the northern hemisphere.
  • Theres an even better correlation between the
    length of the sunspot cycle (ranging from 9.5 to
    11 years) and the mean annual temperature.
  • Well so what? That only pertains to about 150
    years ago
  • What about 1,000 years ago or even longer?

7
A Look Into The Past
  • In 2004, a study was publish in the science
    journal Nature that compiled data on the
    intensity of sunspot activity for the last 11,000
    years.
  • It was done by studying the
  • levels of carbon-14 and
  • beryllium-10 in tree rings
  • which correlates to sunspot
  • activity and by looking at the
  • sizes of the rings which tells
  • you about climate at that
  • time.

Flickr
8
What Does This All Mean?
  • Well the study shows that the past 70 years has
    been a time of unusually high sunspot activity
    which might account for todays higher
    temperatures.
  • Im not saying that everything you learned from
    An Inconvenient Truth isnt true, just that
    there may be more factors contributing to our
    climate change.
  • We dont know enough yet to say for sure!

9
  • The End
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