The Role of the Sun in Climate Change [Paperback]

The luminosity of the sun governs the temperatures of the planets. Yet the solar forcing, or driving, of climate, primarily due to changes in solar radiation, has never been well documented. Recent satellite measurements have shown that solar radiation varies as a function of time and wavelength, a concept that has been hypothesized for the past two centuries and has recently become a major topic with all the attention paid to global warming. This book reviews the physics of the concept of solar forcing, from its beginnings in the early 1800's and apparent success in the 1870's, to its near demise in the 1950's and recent resurgence. Since its emphasis is on solar variations as a driver for climate change, with only a brief discussion of other mechanisms, the book will be of most interest to students in climate studies.

PART I: THE SUN
1. Observations of the Sun
2. Variations in Solar Brightness
PART II: THE CLIMATE
3. Climate Measurement and Modeling
4. Temperature
5. Rainfall
6. Storms
7. Biota
8. Cyclomania
PART III: THE LONGER TERM SUN/CLIMATE CONNECTION
9. Solar and Climate Changes
10. Alternative Climate-Change Theories
11. Gaia or Athena? The Early Faint-Sun Paradox
12. Final Thoughts

Douglas Hoyt and Kenneth Schatten. . .review the effects that solar irradiance variations have in producing climate changes. The book summarizes both the history and our present understanding of this field, so as to provide a solid foundation for graduate students, current researchers and interested scientists in related fields. The book is easy to read, well written, and hard to put down. . . .The two most important problems examined by the book concern the presence of sign reversals in the observed correlations and the fact that the climate variations that are observed are larger by a factor of ten than simple energy-balance calculations can account for. The book reviewsl³"