Global Warming and the Sun

[Aquawind]

I have read a few people mentioning the Sun cycles and GW. Are the other planets warming as well? Do we have any credible data suggesting such? I assume the issue here is that Greenhouse gases or CO2 increases would not be caused by the Sun.. Could the CO2 spike be a result of warming such as the melting permafrost? Is carbon part of evaporation from the oceans? Just asking not making any statements here..lol

[Aslkahuna]

Yes, secular warming has been observed on Mars and, I believe, Neptune the former of which has to be clearly Solar in origin while the latter is less certain. Solar activity is at it's highest overall level since the invention of the telescope which is part of the variability of the Sun's magnetic cycle which results in periods when the Sun's activity is higher than usual and lower (the Maunder and Spörer Minima). High activity more energy from Sun, low activity less. However, the contribution of the Solar factor to the observed warming is pegged to be around 30%. As far as increased CO2, it is my understandign that Isotopic analyses of the CO2 increase should the origin of the excess to be very much due to the burning of fossil fuels which would mean that we contributing it. In fact, the subject of Isotopic analyses is noted in the long GW thread in this particular Forum.

Steve

[x-y-no]

Yes, secular warming has been observed on Mars and, I believe, Neptune the former of which has to be clearly Solar in origin while the latter is less certain. Solar activity is at it's highest overall level since the invention of the telescope which is part of the variability of the Sun's magnetic cycle which results in periods when the Sun's activity is higher than usual and lower (the Maunder and Spörer Minima). High activity more energy from Sun, low activity less. However, the contribution of the Solar factor to the observed warming is pegged to be around 30%. As far as increased CO2, it is my understandign that Isotopic analyses of the CO2 increase should the origin of the excess to be very much due to the burning of fossil fuels which would mean that we contributing it. In fact, the subject of Isotopic analyses is noted in the long GW thread in this particular Forum.

Steve

Can you direct me to any evidence of global warming on Mars? As far as I'm aware, the global temperature on Mars has declined since the 70's. I have seen some claims about global warming on Mars in right-wing blogs and such, but as far as I can determine that claim is not valid - it's based on a purely regional short term (less than 3 Martian years) trend in the size of the south polar ice cap.

Mars' climate is so heavily influenced by the major dust storms there that I doubt it's possible to isolate the contribution of solar variation.

[Aslkahuna]

See my post in the hurricane thread-there's a lot of digging to go through before I can answer that question and I don't know how long it will take. It will mean going back through about 30+ years of S&T's.

Steve

[x-y-no]

I spent a little over two hours in Google Scholar last night trying to find any research which shows this claimed warming. No success.

[Shinyhead]

Hey, I managed to google some interesting articles regarding this subject.

This one is an argument stating that mars is NOT experiencing a warming trend due to the suns input. The comments are very interesting

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=192

This link is stating the exact opposite..

http://motls.blogspot.com/2005/10/dutch ... nk_06.html

I have my opinions, but that treads into political views, which I stay away from on wx boards, this is where I escape political discussion as much as possible.