Apr 20 1982
From The Space Library
NASA's Solar Max satellite had detected an 18-month decrease in solar-energy output that might have caused an unusually harsh winter in 1981 and 1982, said JPL. In the first direct observation of cause-and-effect between solar output and changes in Earth's climate, a solar telescope-Solar Max's active-cavity radiometer irradiance monitor-recorded a steady decrease from February 1980 to August 1981 of a tenth of 1% in total solar energy reaching Earth.
Systematic increases or decreases as small as 0.5% over a century had produced vast changes in Earth's climate: the "Maunder minimum" in the 17th century, when sunspot activity almost vanished, had coincided with a period known as Europe's little ice age. A 1% decrease could lower mean global temperature by more than 1,000 (2°F), and less than 10% decrease could freeze Earth's entire surface. Earth life forms existed in the bioshell, an area 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) on either side of mean sea level, with temperatures fed by solar-energy input and interaction between. atmosphere, ocean, and land masses. The time needed to cool down the atmosphere and ocean would allay short-term changes in solar input. JPL's Dr. Richard C. Willson noted that "if you turned off the sun tomorrow, you wouldn't see its full effects on earth for three years." Solar activity peaked about every 11 years. The current cycle peaked about the time Solar Max was launched early in 1980; the decrease might represent the general decline since then but might also indicate a longer term lowering of solar input. (Telescope at the High-Altitude Observatory, Boulder, Colo., had recorded images of what seemed to be a shrinking sun that might have grown as much as a tenth of 1% smaller every 100 years for the last four centuries.) Solar Max had lost pointing capability in December 1980, and only three of its seven instruments were still returning data. It had been designed for retrieval by the Shuttle, and NASA was seeking authorization for a Solar Max repair mission. (NASA Release 82-57; W Post, Apr 20/82, A-6)
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