Abstract
The correlation between the averaged reconstructed March temperature record for Kyoto, Japan, and the reconstructed Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) over 660 years from 1230 to 1890 gives evidence with 98% probability that the Little Ice Age with four cold periods is forced by variations of TSI. If the correlation is restricted to the period 1650–1890, with two cold periods in the 17th and 19th century and for which two independent reconstructed March temperature records are available, the probability of solar forcing increases to 99.99%. As solar irradiance variations have a global effect there has to be a global climatic solar forcing impact. However, by how much global temperature were lower during these minima and with what amplitude TSI was varying is not accurately known. The two quantities, global temperature and TSI, are linked by the energy equilibrium equation for the Earth system. The derivation of this equation with respect to a variation of the solar irradiance has two terms: A direct forcing term, which can be derived analytically and quantified accurately from the Stefan-Boltzmann law, and a second term, describing indirect influences on the surface temperature. If a small TSI variation should force a large temperature variation, then it has to be the second indirect term that strongly amplifies the effect of the direct forcing. The current knowledge is summarized by three statements:During the minima periods in the 13th, 15/16th, 17th, and 19th centuries the terrestrial climate was colder by 0.5–1.5 °C;Indirect Top-down and Bottom-up mechanisms do not amplify direct forcing by a large amount, i.e. indirect solar forcing is of the same magnitude (or smaller) as direct solar forcing;The radiative output of the Sun cannot be lower by more than 2 Wm−2 below the measured present-day TSI value during solar cycle minimum.These three statements contradict each other and it is concluded that at least one is not correct. Which one is a wrong statement is presently not known conclusively. It is argued that it is the third statement and it is speculated that over centennial time scales the Sun might vary its radiance significantly more than observed so far during the last 40 years of space TSI measurements. To produce Maunder minimum type cold climate excursions, a TSI decrease of the order of 10 Wm−2 is advocated.
Highlights
Have there been changes in the climate over the last few thousands of years? We all have heard the commonly used terms “Roman climatic optimum”, “medieval warm period” or “little ice age”
The correlation between the averaged reconstructed March temperature record for Kyoto, Japan, and the reconstructed Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) over 660 years from 1230 to 1890 gives evidence with 98% probability that the Little Ice Age with four cold periods is forced by variations of TSI
If the correlation is restricted to the period 1650–1890, with two cold periods in the 17th and 19th century and for which two independent reconstructed March temperature records are available, the probability of solar forcing increases to 99.99%
Summary
Have there been changes in the climate over the last few thousands of years? We all have heard the commonly used terms “Roman climatic optimum”, “medieval warm period” or “little ice age”. While there is widespread agreement that there is a relationship between climatic variations and solar activity variations on the 100 to 1000-year timescale, opinions start to diverge strongly when it comes to identifying the physical reasons and quantifying a potential solar influence. Estimates range from irradiance variations, which are insignificant for a potential climate influence, to values with a substantial forcing potential that might explain the climate anomalies during the Holocene (see Fig. 10 and Fig. 8, respectively, of Solanki et al, 2013 and Egorova et al, 2018b) All these reconstructions shown in the cited figures are based on different hypotheses, which are all reasonable, but none of which is proven. The task of resolving this issue is of academic interest but is important for climate prediction in the future
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