Sunspots and Condensation Nuclei Mitchell Tovar Medeiros

Theophrastus a pupil of Aristotle 4 th century BC the Han Dynasty (206BC-25AD) The Aztec myth of creation written as early as 28BC 1610 Italian Mathematician Galileo Galilei 1843 German astronomer Heinrich Schwabe 1896 Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman 1908 American astronomer George Ellery Hale 1995 Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)

4,000-20,000km across ( ,500 mi) km deep ( mi) About 4000K (>6700 F) 2000K (>3000 F) cooler than photosphere 6000K (>10,000 F) Magnetic polarity alternates through 11-year cycles Sunspot numbers increase and decrease in a regular rhythm over about a decade (solar magnetic activity cycle or sunspot cycle) Drift from mid-latitudes to the equator 0-2% of the surface can be covered by sunspots Lifespan from a few hours to a few months Typical sunspots are 10x’s brighter than a full-moon

Umbra-dark central region of sunspot Penumbra-less dark pattern surrounding umbra All sunspots begin their lives as tiny pores no larger than a single granule Large sunspots may have several umbrae within a single penumbra Sunspot magnetic fields= 0.3 tesla of 3,000 gauss (Earth=.00002T/0.3G) Granules-hot packets of gas rising at 1,000m/s, at surface energy is released by radiation then cool, darkens, and sinks downward

R# =k ( 10g + s ) K= a factor based on the estimated efficiency of observer and telescope g is the number of groups of sunspots, and s is the individual number of sunspots in all groups Wolf Sunspot Number

CYCLES: 11.1 year Schwabe cycle 22.2 year Hale cycle 87 year Gleissberg cycle observed links between number of sunspots with terrestrial auroras (1958) 210 year DeVries-Suess cycle Sunspots seem to disappear every 200 years as solar activity diminishes Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle recurrence time being a multiple of 1,470 years Currently in solar cycle 24 beginning on January 4, 2008 Started numbering in 1760

Sunspots at higher latitudes move at slower rates Concentrated in bands about deg in latitude

Solar Wind- Plasma of ions and electrons blowing from the solar corona at speeds of 250 mi/s Particles with energies within 100Mev range are common. 5,000,000 electrons and 5,000,000 protons per cubic meter of Solar Wind near the Earth (confirmed by satellite measurement in the early-1960’s) The Sun’s magnetic field extends outward as far as 100 astronomical units, shielding the inner solar system from cosmic rays

Are Clouds a result of climate?, or is our climate a result of clouds?

Ions created in the troposphere by cosmic rays could provide a mechanism for cloud formation Condensation nuclei -a tiny bit of solid matter (aerosol) in the atmosphere on which water vapor condenses to form a tiny water droplet Charged water droplets combine with aerosol particles x’s more efficiently than uncharged droplets Ionization-the process in which a neutral atom or molecule is given a net electrical charge

Complete record of solar activity is contained within Carbon-14 and Beryllium-10 Isotope deposits found in tree rings and ice cores Oxygen-18 Isotope ratios from calcite shell deposits can show history of Ocean Temperatures Inverse relationship between temperature and Cosmic Ray Flux, when CRF rises temperatures fall, and when CRF drops off, temperature climbs PROXIES

Sunspots can temporarily reduce the Sun’s total radiation of the Earth by as much as 0.01% for minutes to days.

60-70% of Earth is covered by clouds Clouds reflect 60% of the Sun’s radiation Water Vapor is responsible for 95% of Greenhouse effect (CO2 only 3.62%) The 13,000 Gt of water in the atmosphere (~0.33 % by weight) are responsible for about 70% of all atmospheric absorption of radiation

Sunspot Minima Wolf Minimum ( ) Sporer Minimum ( ) Maunder Minimum ( ) Daulton Minimum ( ) 18 periods of sunspot minima since the beginning of the Holocene

Work Cited Heaven and Earth global warming the missing science Ian Plimer The Resilient Earth Science, Global Warming and the Future of Humanity Doug L Hoffman and Allen Simmons The Sun Our Star Robert W. Noyes The Sun Steele Hill and Michael Carlowicz The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Sun Kenneth R. Lang sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov (Don Easterbrook) The Cloud Mystery Henrick Svensmark and Friis-Christensen