Sun–Earth relation: Historical development and present status – A brief review

Abstract

The Sun and Earth are intimately related. Few decades back, it was assumed that the relationship was only through the incidence of solar visible and infrared radiation on the surface of the Earth. However, it was soon realized that many powerful solar radiations reached the top of the terrestrial atmosphere but got absorbed in the upper part of the atmosphere, causing significant changes in the terrestrial environment. In this review, various processes are described, first on the Sun where various solar structures evolve, later in the interplanetary space due to escaping solar wind, and further in the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's magnetic field, containing it in the magnetosphere and entry through the neutral point in the magnetotail. Resulting phenomena like auroras, ring current etc. are described. Present status of solar and interplanetary environments and their terrestrial effects is briefly outlined.

Evolution of seasonal temperature disturbances and solar forcing in the US North Pacific

“…Lean and Rind, 1999;Solanki et al, 2004;Usoskin et al, 2005;Scafetta and West, 2007; see also reviews by de Jager, 2005;Kane, 2005), causes of climate variability in the 20th century and identification of natural vs. anthropogenic contributions are a subject of ongoing debate. The current majority view holds that anthropic addition of greenhouse gases is principally responsible for ''anomalous'' global warming in the 20th century (IPCC, 2007).…”

Could periodic patterns in human mortality be sensitive to solar activity?

“…The sunspots daily number is a widely used proxy of solar activity (Kane, 2005). AA geomagnetic index is a proxy of daily global geomagnetic activity measured for two antipodal stations and the Ap geomagnetic index is a proxy of daily global geomagnetic activity averaged for twelve stations (Mayaud, 1980).…”

“…The most studied feature of this activity has been the sunspots, which have been registered on a daily basis since 1818 (NOAA Solar Data Services website). Transient phenomena as solar flares and coronal mass ejections are more common during periods of high activity and propagate along the interplanetary medium (see Kane, 2005, for a review) reaching the planets of the solar system and even screening the arrival of cosmic rays coming from galactic sources. Depending on the electromagnetic conditions of the Earth's magnetosphere, some of these transients can affect the Earth's environment causing geomagnetic storms, auroras or changes in the electronic content of the ionosphere (Kane, 2005).…”

“…Transient phenomena as solar flares and coronal mass ejections are more common during periods of high activity and propagate along the interplanetary medium (see Kane, 2005, for a review) reaching the planets of the solar system and even screening the arrival of cosmic rays coming from galactic sources. Depending on the electromagnetic conditions of the Earth's magnetosphere, some of these transients can affect the Earth's environment causing geomagnetic storms, auroras or changes in the electronic content of the ionosphere (Kane, 2005). Solar transient and cosmic ray behaviour has also been related with electric atmospheric conditions such as lightning (Schlegel et al, 2001) and Schumann resonances (Sátori et al, 2005) which have periodic components similar to brain wave frequencies (Direnfeld, 1983).…”

Evidence for solar signals in the mesopause temperature variability?

“…Observations of the Sun taken from various instruments based on the ground, aboard airplanes, balloons, rockets and satellites yielded wide insight into both the Sun's radiative and corpuscular output (e.g. Kane, 2005). The most prominent indicator for solar activity undoubtedly is the number of daily sunspots (Schwabe, 1841;Wolf, 1851), dark spots on the solar photosphere, which has been recorded for more than 150 years, and which has been subject to a large number of investigations (e.g.…”