Reply to the Comment of G. Feulner

Weber, W. H.

doi:10.1002/andp.201100171

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Despite these problems, the SAO data continue to attract attention. Weber (2010Weber ( , 2011) correlated the ground-based irradiance measurements from the SAO data with sunspot numbers and claimed to have found a strong variation of terrestrial insolation with solar activity, with differences of the order of 1% between solar maxima and minima (i.e., one order of magnitude larger than the variations in the TSI on top of the atmosphere). These findings were criticised by Feulner (2011a, b) who could show that they were due to seasonal bias and the effects of volcanic aerosols and local pollution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Relation Between Solar Activity and Clear-Sky Terrestrial Irradiance

Feulner

2012

Sol Phys

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The Mauna Loa Observatory record of direct-beam solar irradiance measurements for the years 1958-2010 is analysed to investigate the variation of clear-sky terrestrial insolation with solar activity over more than four solar cycles. The raw irradiance data exhibit a marked seasonal cycle, extended periods of lower irradiance due to emissions of volcanic aerosols, and a long-term decrease in atmospheric transmission independent of solar activity. After correcting for these effects, it is found that clear-sky terrestrial irradiance typically varies by ≈ 0.2 ± 0.1% over the course of the solar cycle, a change of the same order of magnitude as the variations of the total solar irradiance above the atmosphere. An investigation of changes in the clear-sky atmospheric transmission fails to find a significant trend with sunspot number. Hence there is no evidence for a yet unknown effect amplifying variations of clear-sky irradiance with solar activity.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Relation Between Solar Activity and Clear-Sky Terrestrial Irradiance

Feulner

2012

Sol Phys

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“…In terms of solar activity, it has been discovered that the variation of total solar irradiance at the top of the atmosphere (TSI) varies by 0.1% during the 11 year solar cycle [1]. Some researchers argue that the variation in SSR is ten times higher than that in TSI [1][2][3][4][5][6]. SSR drives most of the terrestrial processes, such as the carbon and hydrological cycles, and plays a vital effect in many fields, such as agriculture and solar energy production e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An effort to distinguish the effects of cloud cover and aerosols on the decadal variations of surface solar radiation in the Northern Hemisphere

Jiao,

Su,

et al. 2024

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Surface solar radiation (SSR) serves as the primary energy source on Earth. However, a relative lack of research systematically quantifies long-term SSR variations and their driving factors based on complete and reliable baseline data. This paper presents a new assessment of the Northern Hemisphere/regional SSR variations and the influence of total cloud cover (TCC) on these variations, based on the latest reconstructed SSR gridded dataset. We also address multicollinearity among multiple aerosol types and quantify the effects of multiple aerosol/precursors on SSR variability using a partial least squares regression (PLSR) model. The results indicate that TCC is not the predominant driver of longer-term SSR variations, known as "dimming" and "brightening". The variations of NH3 and SO2 primarily drive inter-decadal SSR variations in North America, while the variations of SO2 and NOX mainly influence inter-decadal SSR variations in Europe.

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Comment on “Strong signature of the active Sun in 100 years of terrestrial insolation data” by W. Weber

Feulner

2011

Annalen der Physik

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An analysis of ground-based observations of solar irradiance was recently published in this journal, reporting an apparent increase of solar irradiance on the ground of the order of 1% between solar minima and maxima [1]. Since the corresponding variations in total solar irradiance on top of the atmosphere are accurately determined from satellite observations to be of the order of 0.1% only [2], the one order of magnitude stronger effect in the terrestrial insolation data was interpreted as evidence for cosmic-ray induced aerosol formation in the atmosphere. In my opinion, however, this result does not reflect reality. Using the energy budget of Earth's surface, I show that changes of ground-based insolation with the solar cycle of the order of 1% between solar minima and maxima would result in large surface air temperature variations which are inconsistent with the instrumental record. It would appear that the strong variations of terrestrial irradiance found by [1] are due to the uncorrected effects of volcanic or local aerosols and seasonal variations. Taking these effects into account, I find a variation of terrestrial insolation with solar activity which is of the same order as the one measured from space, bringing the surface energy budget into agreement with the solar signal detected in temperature data.

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Reply to the Comment of G. Feulner

Cited by 4 publications

References 7 publications

On the Relation Between Solar Activity and Clear-Sky Terrestrial Irradiance

On the Relation Between Solar Activity and Clear-Sky Terrestrial Irradiance

An effort to distinguish the effects of cloud cover and aerosols on the decadal variations of surface solar radiation in the Northern Hemisphere

Comment on “Strong signature of the active Sun in 100 years of terrestrial insolation data” by W. Weber

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