Effect of Space Weather On Terrestrial Weather
The amount of energy entering the troposphere and stratosphere from all space weather phenomena is trivial compared to the solar insolation in the visible and infra-red portions of the solar electromagnetic spectrum. However there does seem to be some linkage between the 11 year sunspot cycle and the Earth's climate. For example, the Maunder minimum, a 70 year period almost devoid of sunspots, correlates to a cooling of the Earth's climate. One suggestion for the linkage between space and terrestrial weather is that changes in cosmic ray flux cause changes in the amount of cloud formation. Another suggestion is that variations in the EUV flux subtly influence existing drivers of the climate and tips the balance between states such as the El Niño/La Niña states. However, a linkage between space weather and the climate has not been demonstrated conclusively.
Read more about this topic: Space Weather
Famous quotes containing the words effect of, effect, space and/or weather:
“Worldly faces never look so worldly as at a funeral. They have the same effect of grating incongruity as the sound of a coarse voice breaking the solemn silence of night.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“We are such docile creatures, normally, that it takes a virus to jolt us out of life’s routine. A couple of days in a fever bed are, in a sense, health-giving; the change in body temperature, the change in pulse rate, and the change of scene have a restorative effect on the system equal to the hell they raise.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)
“Though seas and land be ‘twixt us both,
Our faith and troth,
Like separated souls,
All time and space controls:
Above the highest sphere we meet
Unseen, unknown, and greet as angels greet.”
—Richard Lovelace (1618–1658)
“Whenever the weather licks the pilot instead of him lickin’ the weather, he’s finished. The first time makes the second time easier. And the first thing he knows, he’s in trouble when the weather is perfect.”
—Frank W. Wead (1895?–1947)