Variation in total solar irradiance is thought to have little effect on the Earth's surface temperature because of the thermal time constant--the characteristic response time of the Earth's global surface temperature to changes in forcing. This time constant is large enough to smooth annual variations but not necessarily variations having a longer period such as those due to solar inertial motion; the magnitude of these surface temperature variations is estimated.
It is suggested by Chen {\it et al.} that the Earth's surface Ultraviolet irradiance ($280-400$ nm) could influence the Earth's surface temperature variation by "Highly Excited Water Vapor" (HEWV) effect. In this manuscript, we reconstruct the developing history of the ozone layer depth variation from 1860 to 2011 based on the HEWV effect. It is shown that the reconstructed ozone layer depth variation correlates with the observational variation from 1958 to 2005 very well ($R=0.8422$, $P>99.9\%$). From this reconstruction, we may limit the spectra band of the surface Ultraviolet irradiance ref…
Whether natural factors could interpret the rise of the Earth's surface temperature is still controversial. Though numerous recent researches have reported apparent correlations between solar activity and the Earth's climate, solar activity has encountered a big problem when describing the rapid global warming after 1970s. Our investigation shows the good positive correlations between the Earth's surface Ultraviolet irradiance (280-400 nm) and the Earth's surface temperature both in temporal and spatial variations by analyzing the global surface Ultraviolet irradiance (280-400 nm) and global s…
Atmospheric ozone plays an important role on the temperature structure of the atmosphere. However, it has not been included in previous studies on the effect of an increasing solar radiation on the Earth's climate. Here we study the climate sensitivity to the presence/absence of ozone with an increasing solar forcing for the first time with a global climate model. We show that the warming effect of ozone increases both the humidity of the lower atmosphere and the surface temperature. Under the same solar irradiance, the mean surface temperature is 7 K higher than in an analog planet without oz…
Astrophysical ionizing radiation events have been recognized as a potential threat to life on Earth, primarily through depletion of stratospheric ozone and subsequent increase in surface-level solar ultraviolet radiation. Simulations of the atmospheric effects of a variety of events (such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and solar proton events) have been previously published, along with estimates of biological damage at Earth's surface. In this work, we employed the TUV radiative transfer model to expand and improve calculations of surface-level irradiance and biological impacts following an …
Earthshine is the dominant source of natural illumination on the surface of the Moon during lunar night, and at locations within permanently shadowed regions that never receive direct sunlight. As such, earthshine may enable the exploration of areas of the Moon that are hidden from solar illumination. The heat flux from earthshine may also influence the transport and cold trapping of volatiles present in the very coldest areas. In this study, Earth's spectral radiance at the Moon is examined using a suite of Earth spectral models created using the Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) three dimen…
A key goal of the Kepler mission is the discovery of Earth-size transiting planets in "habitable zones" where stellar irradiance maintains a temperate climate on an Earth-like planet. Robust estimates of planet radius and irradiance require accurate stellar parameters, but most Kepler systems are faint, making spectroscopy difficult and prioritization of targets desirable. The parameters of 2035 host stars were estimated by Bayesian analysis and the probabilities p(HZ) that 2738 candidate or confirmed planets orbit in the habitable zone were calculated. Dartmouth Stellar Evolution Program mode…
The Sun is the primary source of energy for the Earth. The small changes in total solar irradiance (TSI) can affect our climate in the longer timescale. In the evolutionary timescale, the TSI varies by a large amount and hence its influence on the Earth's mean surface temperature (T$_{s}$) also increases significantly. We develop a mass-loss dependent analytical model of TSI in the evolutionary timescale and evaluated its influence on the T$_{s}$. We determined the numerical solution of TSI for the next 8.23 Gyrs to be used as an input to evaluate the T$_{s}$ which formulated based on a zero-d…
Variations of the solar UV irradiance are an important driver of chemical and physical processes in the Earth's upper atmosphere and may also influence global climate. Here we reconstruct solar UV irradiance in the range 115-400 nm over the period 1974-2007 by making use of the recently developed empirical extension of the SATIRE models employing SUSIM data. The evolution of the solar photospheric magnetic flux, which is a central input to the model, is described by the magnetograms and continuum images recorded at the Kitt Peak National Solar Observatory between 1974 and 2003 and by the MDI i…
The time series of total solar irradiance (TSI) satellite observations since 1978 provided by ACRIM and PMOD TSI composites are studied. We find empirical evidence for planetary-induced forcing and modulation of solar activity. Power spectra and direct data pattern analysis reveal a clear signature of the 1.09-year Earth-Jupiter conjunction cycle, in particular during solar cycle 23 maximum. This appears to suggest that the Jupiter side of the Sun is slightly brighter during solar maxima. The effect is observed when the Earth crosses the Sun-Jupiter conjunction line every 1.09 years. Multiple …
Two atmospheric responses to simulated astrophysical ionizing radiation events significant to life on Earth are production of odd-nitrogen species, especially NO2, and subsequent depletion of stratospheric ozone. Ozone depletion increases incident short-wavelength ultraviolet radiation (UVB, 280-315 nm) and longer ( > 600 nm) wavelengths of photosynthetically available radiation (PAR, 400 -700 nm). On the other hand, the NO2 haze decreases atmospheric transmission in the long-wavelength UVA (315-400 nm) and short wavelength PAR. Here we use the results of previous simulations of incident spect…
Knowledge of solar irradiance variability is critical to Earth's climate models and understanding the solar influence on Earth's climate. Direct solar irradiance measurements are only available since 1978. Reconstructions of past variability typically rely on sunspot data. These provide only indirect information on the facular and network regions, which are decisive contributors to irradiance variability on timescales of the solar cycle and longer. Our ultimate goal is to reconstruct past solar irradiance variations using historical full-disc Ca II K observations to describe the facular contri…
We investigated the potential biological impacts at Earth's surface of stratospheric O3 depletion caused by nearby supernovae known to have occurred about 2.5 and 8 million years ago at about 50 pc distance. New and previously published atmospheric chemistry modeling results were combined with radiative transfer modeling to determine changes in surface-level Solar irradiance and biological responses. We find that UVB irradiance is increased by a factor of 1.1 to 2.8, with large variation in latitude, and seasonally at high latitude regions. Changes in UVA and PAR (visible light) are much small…
Recently discovered long-term oscillations of the solar background magnetic field associated with double dynamo waves generated in inner and outer layers of the Sun indicate that the solar activity is heading in the next three decades (2019-2055) to a Modern grand minimum similar to Maunder one. On the other hand, a reconstruction of solar total irradiance suggests that since the Maunder minimum there is an increase in the cycle-averaged total solar irradiance (TSI) by a value of about $1-1.5$ $Wm^{-2}$ closely correlated with an increase of the baseline (average) terrestrial temperature. In o…
We use a new Atmospheric Chemistry and Energetics one-dimensional (ACE1D) thermospheric model to show that the energies deposited by the solar soft x-rays in the lower thermosphere at altitudes between 100 -150 km (Bailey et al. 2000), affects the temperature of the entire Earth's thermosphere even at altitudes well above 300 km. By turning off the input solar flux in the different wavelength bins of the model iteratively, we are able to demonstrate that the maximum change in exospheric temperature is due to the changes in the soft x-ray solar bins. We also show, using the thermodynamic heat e…
The UV environment of a host star affects the photochemistry in the atmosphere, and ultimately the surface UV environment for terrestrial planets and therefore the conditions for the origin and evolution of life. We model the surface UV radiation environment for Earth-sized planets orbiting FGKM stars at the 1AU equivalent distance for Earth through its geological evolution. We explore four different types of atmospheres corresponding to an early Earth atmosphere at 3.9 Gyr ago and three atmospheres covering the rise of oxygen to present day levels at 2.0 Gyr ago, 0.8 Gyr ago and modern Earth …
Carbon dioxide is one of the major contributors to the radiative forcing, increasing both the temperature and the humidity of Earth's atmosphere. If the stellar irradiance increases and water becomes abundant in the stratosphere of an Earth-like planet, it will be dissociated and the resultant hydrogen will escape from the atmosphere. This state is called the moist greenhouse threshold (MGT). Using a global climate model (GCM) of intermediate complexity, we explore how to identify this state for different CO2 concentrations and including the radiative effect of atmospheric ozone for the first …
We present SHINeS, a space simulator which can be used to replicate the thermal environment in the immediate neighborhood of the Sun down to a heliocentric distance r~0.06 au. The system consists of three main parts: the solar simulator which was designed and constructed in-house, a vacuum chamber, and the probing and recording equipment needed to monitor the experimental procedures. Our motivation for building this experimental system was to study the effect of intense solar radiation on the surfaces of asteroids when their perihelion distances become smaller than the semi-major axis of the o…
The Earth is a rapidly rotating body. The centrifugal pull makes its shape resemble a flattened ellipsoid and Coriolis forces support waves in its fluid core, known as inertial waves. These waves can lead to global oscillations, or modes, of the fluid. Periodic variations of the Earth's rotation axis (nutations) can lead to an exchange of angular momentum between the mantle and the fluid core and excite these inertial modes. In addition to viscous torques that exist regardless of the shape of the boundaries, the small flattening of the core-mantle boundary (CMB) allows inertial modes to exert …
Given a solar luminosity L_Ar = 0.75 L_0 at the beginning of the Archean 3.8 Gyr ago, where L_0 is the present-day one, if the heliocentric distance r of the Earth was r_Ar = 0.956 r_0, the solar irradiance would have been as large as I_Ar = 0.82 I_0. It would allowed for a liquid ocean on the terrestrial surface which, otherwise, would have been frozen, contrary to the empirical evidence. By further assuming that some physical mechanism subsequently displaced the Earth towards its current distance in such a way that the irradiance stayed substantially constant over the entire Archean from 3.8…
We write a nonlinear model that predicts the climate (temperature and humidity) on the surface of a small region on Earth, perform numerical investigations using the model, and compare the results to real climate on a variety of regions on Earth. It the parameters are chosen keeping into consideration the climatic Köppen zone to which the region belongs, the numerical model accurately reproduces the real climate. The model takes into account the doubly-periodic forcing of the solar radiation (annual and daily), the laws of irradiance, the fact that the Earth has land and oceans with different …
Present-day Venus is an inhospitable place with surface temperatures approaching 750K and an atmosphere over 90 times as thick as present day Earth's. Billions of years ago the picture may have been very different. We have created a suite of 3D climate simulations using topographic data from the Magellan mission, solar spectral irradiance estimates for 2.9 and 0.715 billion years ago, present day Venus orbital parameters, an ocean volume consistent with current theory and measurements, and an atmospheric composition estimated for early Venus. Using these parameters we find that such a world co…
It is known that the so-called problem of solar power pacemaker related to possible existence of some hidden but key mechanism of energy influence of the Sun on fundamental geophysical processes is one of the principal and puzzling problems of modern climatology. The "tracks" of this mechanism have been shown up in different problems of solar-terrestrial physics for a long time and, in particular, in climatology, where the solar-climate variability is stably observed. However, the mechanisms by which small changes in the Sun's energy (solar irradiance or insolation) output during the solar cyc…
Luminosity, which is the total amount of radiant energy emitted by an object, is one of the most critical quantities in astrophysics for characterizing stars. Equally important is the temporal evolution of a star's luminosity because of its intimate connection with the stellar energy budget, large-scale convective motion, and heat storage in the stellar interior. Here, we model the solar luminosity by extending a semi-empirical total solar irradiance (TSI) model that uses solar-surface magnetism to reconstruct solar irradiance over the entire 4π solid angle around the Sun. This model was const…
The variation with time from 1956-2002 of the globally averaged rate of ionization produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere is deduced and shown to have a cyclic component of period roughly twice the 11 year solar cycle period. Long term variations in the global average surface temperature as a function of time since 1956 are found to have a similar cyclic component. The cyclic variations are also observed in the solar irradiance and in the mean daily sun spot number. The cyclic variation in the cosmic ray rate is observed to be delayed by 2-4 years relative to the temperature, the solar irra…
During a solar eclipse the solar irradiance reaching the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) is reduced in the Moon shadow. The solar irradiance is commonly measured by Earth observation satellites before the start of the solar eclipse and is not corrected for this reduction, which results in a decrease of the computed TOA reflectances. Consequently, air quality products that are derived from TOA reflectance spectra, such as the ultraviolet (UV) Absorbing Aerosol Index (AAI), are distorted or undefined in the shadow of the Moon. The availability of air quality satellite data in the penumbral and antumbral…
Recent studies of the effects on the Earth's atmosphere by astrophysical sources, such as nearby gamma-ray bursts or supernovae, have shown that these events could lead to severe changes in atmospheric composition. Depletion of ozone, the most notable of these changes, is extremely dangerous to living organisms as any decrease in ozone levels leads to an increase in the irradiance of harmful solar radiation at the Earth's surface. In this work we consider dark matter as an astrophysical source of gamma rays, by the annihilation and decay of WIMPs found within dark compact halo objects known as…
