…Here’s what NASA says about Jolly Old Mr. Sun, our nearest star (NASA, Is The Sun Causing Global Warming)
“The Sun can influence Earth’s climate, but it isn’t responsible for the warming trend we’ve seen over recent decades. The Sun is a giver of life; it helps keep the planet warm enough for us to survive. We know subtle changes in Earth’s orbit around the Sun are responsible for the comings and goings of the ice ages. But the warming we’ve seen in recent decades is too rapid to be linked to changes in Earth’s orbit and too large to be caused by solar activity.
“If the Sun were responsible for global warming, we would expect to see warming throughout all layers of the atmosphere, from the surface to the upper atmosphere (stratosphere). But what we actually see is warming at the surface and cooling in the stratosphere. This is consistent with the warming being caused by a buildup of heat-trapping gases near Earth’s surface, and not by the Sun getting ‘hotter.’ “
But what about the thermosphere? It lies in Earth’s atmosphere between the lower mesosphere and outer exosphere.
According to UCAR, the Center for Science Education:
“The thermosphere is a layer of Earth’s atmosphere that is directly above the mesosphere and below the exosphere. It extends from about 90 km (56 miles) to between 500 and 1,000 km (311 to 621 miles) above Earth’s surface.
“Temperatures climb sharply in the lower thermosphere (below 200 to 300 km altitude), then level off and hold fairly steady with increasing altitude above that height. Solar activity strongly influences temperature in the thermosphere.
“The thermosphere is typically about 200° C (360° F) hotter in the daytime than at night, and roughly 500° C (900° F) hotter when the Sun is very active than at other times. Temperatures in the upper thermosphere can range from about 500° C (932° F) to 2,000° C (3,632° F) or higher.”
This puts the lie to NASA’s leftward claim that “we would expect to see warming throughout all layers of Earth’s atmosphere.” But we do!
The thermosphere is very, very hot. Hmmm, NASA remains, as a federal agency, hip deep in the ole alarmist global warming Kool-Aid, popularised by Barack Obama and his hustlers and lately by the jawboning members of the Biden junta.
Time To Talk About Neptune
With the heat of the thermosphere put to bed and thinking about NASA’s claim that the nearest star, the Sun, has little or no effect on Earth’s atmosphere and temperature, let’s look at Neptune, the gigantic ice giant inside Pluto’s eccentric orbit.
NASA’s Hubble site explains something rather odd and contradictory to its claims about the sun and our atmosphere:
“The Sun’s influence on Neptune became increasingly obvious when astronomers looked at 30 years of Neptune observations with the Hubble and Keck telescopes. Neptune’s abundance of clouds waxes and wanes over an 11-year cycle. The Sun also has an 11-year cycle where it becomes stormy as its magnetic fields become entangled, increasing sunspot number and rate of violent outbursts.
“The link between Neptune and solar activity is surprising to planetary scientists because Neptune is our solar system’s farthest major planet and receives sunlight with about 0.1% of the intensity Earth receives.
“Yet Neptune’s global cloudy weather seems to be driven by solar activity, and not the planet’s four seasons, which each last approximately 40 years.”
Funny how Jolly Old Mr. Sun can affect the clouds on Neptune, which lies a mere 2.7 billion miles from the Earth.
Yup, our Sun controls Neptune’s clouds but it has, at a mere 93 million miles from us, a single Astronomical Unit away, no effect on our atmosphere or global “warming”.
Like so many far-left solons and cranks, NASA speaks out of both sides of its mouth.
As for me, with sets of stocks being measured for me so that Antifa, Democrats, our far-left media, and those who worship Biden like a god can pelt me with rotten vegetables and rocks while ensuring that I can’t fight back, I remain a physicist at heart.
Remember, when countering the absurd climate change arguments that have dogged us for fifty years, like the Arctic becoming ice-free 15 years ago, the growing dearth of polar bears while their numbers increase, combined with the totally inane and slightly fallacious ongoing nattering of John Fawbs Kerry and Greta Thunberg, the latter a climate guru, high schooler and Nobel Prize nominee, use the available published facts.
The Sun’s effects on Neptune are but one item in our arsenal of truth.
h/t Alan S.
Read more at Canada Free Press
Here comes Mr. Sunshine and followed by Mr. Thunderbird Mr. Sunshine Teach Mr. Thunderbird new trick Rain on the Eco-Freaks
Since NASA has altered historical temperature data to support the climate change movement, we can expect other “scientific” information from them to be nothing more than propaganda. Sun spots vary with the star’s intensity. The number of sun spots of been observed for hundreds of years. The number seen during the medieval warm period was consistent with our star being warmer at that time.
Slight correction. Sunspot numbers have been observed for about 400 years so visual records don’t go back to the medieval warm period. Proxy measurements, primarily beryllium isotopes trapped in ice cores go back thousands of years and show a clear correlation between sunspot numbers and global temperatures. I’m not sure if changes in the output of solar radiation are large enough to explain temperature changes on Earth. Changes in the strength of the sun’s magnetic field changes the number of galactic cosmic rays entering the atmosphere. These help clouds to form (the effect seen on Neptune) and the amount of clouds changes the amount of solar radiation that is reflected back into space which affects global temperatures, although there seems to be some time lag due to the amount of heat stored in the oceans.
Matt, I stand corrected on when sun spots were observed and really appreciate your comment. I had considered mentioning the strength of the magnetic field, cosmic ray, and cloud correlation. It was a mistake to decide to keep my comment simple.
One thing we can gain from this issue. There is the analysis which compares solar output to the earth’s temperature. This supports the anthropological climate change narrative but does not correspond to empirical data. The cosmic ray theory fails to the support the climate change view point, but matches empirical data. NASA’s excuse for scientists obviously selected the theory based on which one supports the climate fraud.