Text 15584, 72 rader
Skriven 2005-09-22 14:25:00 av VERN HUMPHREY (1:123/140)
Ärende: Dang that George Bush!!
===============================
From
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=511&sid=5080155

Sunspot activity hits 1,000-year high
swissinfo
July 12, 2004 1:59 PM


The Sun is burning brighter than at any time over the past 1,150 years,
according to a study by a professor at a Swiss university.
Professor Sami Solanki said this could be compounding the effects of
greenhouse gases and contributing to global warming.
Sunspots appear to be intensifying the sun's brightness and energy
output (zebulon1er)

"We have to acknowledge that the Sun is in a changed state. It is
brighter than it was a few hundred years ago, and this brightening
started relatively recently - in the last 100 to 150 years. We expect it
to have an impact on global warming," he told swissinfo.

Last week Solanki, who is a professor at the Federal Institute of
Technology in Zurich, presented the findings at a conference of solar
and stellar scientists in Hamburg, Germany.

His research team reached its conclusions after studying data from
samples of ice collected by Swiss scientist Jürg Beer on an expedition
to Greenland in 1991.

Most scientists acknowledge that greenhouse gases from fossil fuels have
warmed the planet in past decades, but they have questioned whether a
brighter Sun is also responsible for rising temperatures.
Global warming
Average global temperatures have increased by about 0.2 degrees Celsius
over the past 20 years, and are widely believed to be responsible for
new extremes in weather patterns across the world.

According to scientists, the Sun's radiance has changed little during
this period. But looking back over 1,150 years, Solanki found the Sun
had never been as bright as in the past 60 years.

The indirect impact of more intense sunshine on the ozone layer and of
solar activity on cloud cover may be affecting the climate more than the
sunlight itself, he said.

"The change in solar brightness over the past 20 years is not enough to
cause the observed changes in our climate. But the indirect effects may
be larger, and the range of their influence is unclear, so more study is
needed," he added.

To see whether a brighter Sun is warming the planet, solar scientists
have measured magnetic zones on the Sun's surface, called sunspots.

Sunspots appear to intensify the Sun's brightness and energy output, and
their numbers are associated with climate, said Solanki, who is also
managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
in Germany.

Looking back over several hundred years, Solanki's team found that not
only did a dearth of sunspots signal a cold period - sometimes for as
long as 50 years - but they also discovered that the number of sunspots
increased over the past century as the Earth's climate grew steadily
warmer.

"All in all, I think we are coming to a point where we acknowledge that
both solar activity and greenhouse gases are important factors in the
change in the Earth's temperature," he said.

**************************************************
I don't know how Bush is doing this, but I know one thing -- it's all
about oil!!
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Try Our Web Based QWK: DOCSPLACE.ORG (1:123/140)