The authors describe a newmethod of comparing different climate forcing agents (e.g., CO2 concentration, CH4 concentration, and total solar irradiance) in climate models that circumvents many of the difficulties associated with explicit calculations of efficacy. This is achieved by introducing an explicit feedback loop external to a climate model that adjusts one forcing agent to balance anothe...

An influence of solar irradiance variations on Earth’s surface climate has been repeatedly suggested, based on correlations between solar variability and meteorological variables1. Specifically, weaker westerly winds have been observed in winters with a less active sun, for example at the minimum phase of the 11-year sunspot cycle2–4. With some possible exceptions5,6, it has proved difficult fo...

[1] The most accurate value of total solar irradiance during the 2008 solar minimum period is 1360.8 ± 0.5 W m according to measurements from the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) on NASA’s Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) and a series of new radiometric laboratory tests. This value is significantly lower than the canonical value of 1365.4 ± 1.3 W m established in the 1990s, which en...

The satellite total solar irradiance (TSI) database provides a valuable record for investigating models of solar variation used to interpret climate changes. The 35year ACRIM total solar irradiance (TSI) satellite composite time series has been revised using algorithm updates based on 13 years of accumulated mission experience and corrections to ACRIMSAT/ACRIM3 results for scattering and diffra...

Satellite ocean colour missions require a standard extraterrestrial solar irradiance spectrum in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) for use in the process of radiometric calibration, atmospheric correction and normalization of water-leaving radiances from in-situ measurements. There are numerous solar irradiance spectra (or models) currently in use within the ocean colour community and related...

Identifying the environmental factors driving larval settlement processes is crucial to understand the population dynamics of marine invertebrates. This work aims to go a step ahead and predict larval presence and intensity. For this purpose we consider the influence of solar irradiance, wind regime and continental runoff on the settlement processes. For the first time, we conducted a 5-years w...

The detection of variations in solar irradiance by satellitebased experiments during the last 17 years stimulated modelling e orts to help to identify their causes and to provide estimates for irradiance data when no satellite observations exist. Because of the lack of quantitative physical models of solar irradiance, the current empirical models have been developed with linear regression analy...

This paper presents initial values of global and diffuse luminous efficacy at Saint-Pierre (Reunion Island). Firstly, data used were measured for a period of 6 months, from February to June 2008. During this period, all defined day-types have been studied (clear, cloudy and intermediate). Generally, the meteorological database of Reunion does not contain information for illuminance values. On t...

This paper presents an overview of the main advances in the Key Questions identified by the Task Group ‘What is the Solar Influence on Climate’ by the SCOSTEP CAWSES-II science program. We go through different aspects of solar forcing from solar irradiance, including total solar irradiance (TSI) and solar spectral irradiance (SSI), to energetic particle forcing, including energetic particle pre...

Recent precise observations of solar global parameters are used to calibrate an upgraded solar model which takes into account magnetic fields in the solar interior. Historical data about sunspot numbers (from 1500 to the present) and solar radius changes (between 1715 and 1979) are used to compute solar variability on years to centuries timescales. The results show that although the 11 year var...