Sun and climate: past and present

15 March 2010, 5.15 pm

The Sun still presents surprises after centuries of study. Its output is far from constant. Indeed, 2010 has seen renewed solar activity after a quiet period that was much longer than predicted.  The relationship between solar activity and a wide range of atmospheric and terrestrial responses is keenly debated.  Among the unresolved issues is the extent to which the recent lack of global warming can be attributed to declining solar irradiance since the last solar maximum in 2002.

A joint presentation by two of the UK's foremost experts in the field of sun-earth connections will address these and other such issues. Professor Mike Lockwood FRS is distinguished for major advances in understanding the connections between Earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere and the interplanetary magnetic field. His discovery that open magnetic flux from the Sun is highly correlated with total irradiance had a crucial result for climate change studies.  Professor Joanna Haigh is Head of the Department of Physics at Imperial College, London and has published widely in the area of radiative transfer in the atmosphere, climate modelling, and radiative forcing of climate change. She was Vice-President of the Royal Meteorological Society and a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment.

This lecture is a public event following a workshop bringing together climate and solar scientists to foster further enquiries into solar forcing at the centennial-scale. The Bristol Port Company are kindly acknowledged for their donation which facilitated this event.

The lecture will be followed by a wine reception.