Measurement of Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance

The Sun’s electromagnetic radiation powers our solar system. In the case of the Earth it heats the lands and ocean, maintains our atmosphere, generates clouds, and cycles water. For other planets and minor bodies, similar and appropriate physical processes occur, also powered by the Sun. The Sun varies on all time scales and a precise knowledge of the Sun's irradiance and its variation is essential to our understanding of environments and physical conditions throughout our solar system. Measurements of solar irradiance and its variation can only be made from space, and almost thirty years of observation have now established that the total solar irradiance (TSI) varies by only 0.1 to 0.3%, while certain portions of the solar spectrum, the ultraviolet for example, vary by orders of magnitude more. This paper provides an overview of TSI observations and of spectral irradiance observations from the ultraviolet to the near infrared.     

Solar Variability and the Earth's Climate: Introduction and Overview

Numerous attempts have been made over the years to link various aspects of solar variability to changes in the Earth's climate. There has been growing interest in this possible connection in recent years, spurred largely by the need to understand the natural causes of climate change, against which the expected global warming due to man's activities will have to be detected. The time scale of concern here is that of decades to centuries, and excludes the longer millennial scale in which orbital variations play a dominant role. The field has long been plagued by the lack of an acceptable physical mechanism by which solar variability can affect climate, but the discovery of variability in the Sun's total irradiance (the solar ``constant' of meteorology) by spacecraft instruments has pointed to a direct mechanism. Other less direct mechanisms that have been suggested involve variations in the Sun's ultraviolet flux and in the plasma outflow of the solar wind. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current state of the field, emphasizing the proposed mechanisms as an introduction to the more detailed papers that follow. The particular case of sea-surface temperature data will be used as an illustration.     

Solar Influences on Dynamical Coupling Between the Stratosphere and Troposphere

We use a simplified atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) to investigate the response of the lower atmosphere to thermal perturbations in the lower stratosphere. The results show that generic heating of the lower stratosphere tends to weaken the sub-tropical jets and the tropospheric mean meridional circulations. The positions of the jets, and the extent of the Hadley cells, respond to the distribution of the stratospheric heating, with low latitude heating displacing them poleward, and uniform heating displacing them equatorward. The patterns of response to the low latitude heating are similar to those found to be associated with solar variability in previous observational data analysis, and to the effects of varying solar UV radiation in sophisticated AGCMs. In order to investigate the chain of causality involved in converting the stratospheric thermal forcing to a tropospheric climate signal we conduct an experiment which uses an ensemble of model spin-ups to analyse the time development of the response to an applied stratospheric perturbation. We find that the initial effect of the change in static stability at the tropopause is to reduce the eddy momentum flux convergence in this region. This is followed by a vertical transfer of the momentum forcing anomaly by an anomalous mean circulation to the surface, where it is partly balanced by surface stress anomalies. The unbalanced part drives the evolution of the vertically integrated zonal flow. We conclude that solar heating of the stratosphere may produce changes in the circulation of the troposphere even without any direct forcing below the tropopause. We suggest that the impact of the stratospheric changes on wave propagation is key to the mechanisms involved.     

基于星载加速度计反演载人航天轨道大气密度

热层大气密度直接影响低轨道航天器的精密定轨,热层大气密度模型的误差是影响载人航天定轨精度的关键因素。选取400km为载人航天轨道的代表高度,利用CHAMP卫星数据修正热层大气密度模型,进而反演得到2002年的热层大气密度,统计其中长期变化特征,并分析大气密度与太阳活动和地磁活动的关系,得出热层大气密度与两种指数的总体变化趋势一致的结论,且地磁活动与大气密度的相关性更好。同时将大气密度的反演值与神舟三号飞船的实测密度值进行对比,结果显示二者有较好的一致性,其平均残差和均方根误差分别为0．03和0．24,并且地磁平静期的误差明显小于磁暴期。结果表明,利用星载加速度计数据反演载人航天轨道大气密度是一种有效的方法。     

On the Response of the Climate System to Solar Forcing

The climate response to changes in radiative forcing depends crucially on climate feedback processes, with the consequence that solar and greenhouse gas forcing have both similar response patterns in the troposphere. This circumstance complicates significantly the attribution of the causes of climate change. Additionally, the climate system displays a high level of unforced intrinsic variability, and significant variations in the climate of many parts of the world are due to internal processes. Such internal modes contribute significantly to the variability of climate system on various time scales, and thus compete with external forcing in explaining the origin of past climate extremes. This highlights the need for independent observations of solar forcing including long-term consistent observational records of the total and spectrally resolved solar irradiance. The stratospheric response to solar forcing is different from its response to greenhouse gas forcing, thus suggesting that stratospheric observations could offer the best target for the identification of the specific influence of solar forcing on climate.     

Coronal Dynamics and the AIA on SDO

We provide a brief overview of present-day studies of inner corona dynamics, with examples of mass ejections (CME), flares and active region dynamics. While the names of the topics have not changed in several decades, the internal details and the language used to express the nature of the problem have changed considerably. We conclude with a short discussion of the contribution to studies of coronal dynamics to be expected from the Atmospheric Imager Assembly (AIA) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory.     

Impact of Solar Activity on Stratospheric Ozone and NO2 Observed by Gomos/Envisat

Energetic proton precipitation occurring during solar events can increase the production of odd nitrogen in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. A very intense solar proton event (SPE) occurred on 28 October 2003. Its impact on the composition of the middle atmosphere was observed in details due to the availability of several space instruments. Here we present GOMOS observations of a strong NO₂increase and a related ozone decrease in the upper stratosphere at north polar latitude. The perturbation of the chemical composition of the stratosphere was observed until the middle of December 2003. A strong NO₂ increase was also observed in the south polar vortex in June-July 2003. It is tentatively attributed to the effect of an SPE with protons of moderate energy occurring on 29 May 2003. If this hypothesis is confirmed, it will imply that the global effect of SPEs on the composition of the stratosphere is underestimated when only strong energy SPEs are considered.     

The Modulation of Galactic Cosmic Rays in the Heliosphere: Theory and Models

Almost all theoretical and numerical models for the modulation of cosmic ray in the heliosphere are based on Parker's transport equation which contains all the important basic physical processes. The relative importance of the various mechanisms is however not established and may vary significantly over 22 years. The simultaneous measurements of solar wind parameters, heliospheric magnetic field properties and cosmic rays over a wide range of energies and positions in the heliosphere have brought the realization that modulation is much more complicated than what the original drift models predicted. In the process the sophistication of models based on solving Parker's equation has increased by orders of magnitude. A short review of the global modulation of cosmic rays is given from a theoretical and modelling point of view.     

Solar and Heliospheric Modulation of Galactic Cosmic Rays

The significance of external influences on the environment of Earth and its atmosphere has become evident during recent years. Especially, on time scales of several hundred years, the cosmogenic isotope concentration during the Wolf-, Spoerer-, Maunder- and Dalton-Minimum indicates an increased cosmic ray flux. Because these grand minima of solar activity coincide with cold periods, a correlation of the Earth climate with the cosmic ray intensities is plausible. Any quantitative study of the effects of energetic particles on the atmosphere and environment of the Earth must address their transport to Earth and their interactions with the Earth’s atmosphere including their filtering by the terrestrial magnetosphere. The first problem is one of the fundamental problems in modern cosmic ray astrophysics, and corresponding studies began in the 1960s based on Parker’s cosmic ray modulation theory taking into account diffusion, convection, adiabatic deceleration, and (later) the drift of energetic particles in the global heliospheric magnetic field. It is well established that all of these processes determining the modulation of cosmic rays are depending on parameters that are varying with the solar magnetic cycle. Therefore, the galactic cosmic ray intensities close to Earth is the result of a complex modulation of the interstellar galactic spectrum within the heliosphere. The modern view of this cosmic ray modulation is summarized in our contribution.     

基于深度学习的太阳10.7 cm射电流量日值的中期预报

针对太阳10.7cm射电流量中期日值预报问题,采用深度学习方法,建立了一个典型的基于多层感知器模型的神经网络。该网络采用1个包含90个神经元的隐含层,实现了一种非参数的时间序列自回归模型。预报中不仅考虑历史日值,还考虑了历史预报误差。模型根据前27d的历史数据实现了未来27d的日值预报。通过对50多年数据的训练和试验分析,该方法在短期和中期预报上较传统方法的相对误差明显降低。特别是模型经一次训练后,参数可以完全固定,不同于以往研究参数需要每天滚动更新,大大简化了日常预报,同时极为有利于模型在其他相关应用中的推广。     

SOHO: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), together with the Cluster mission, constitutes ESA's Solar Terrestrial Science Programme (STSP), the first Cornerstone of the Agency's long-term programme Space Science — Horizon 2000. STSP, which is being developed in a strong collaborative effort with NASA, will allow comprehensive studies to be made of the both the Sun's interior and its outer atmosphere, the acceleration and propagation of the solar wind and its interaction with the Earth. This paper gives a brief overview of one part of STSP, the SOHO mission.     

Observed Long-Term Variations of Solar Irradiance at the Earth’s Surface

The variation of global radiation (sum of direct solar and diffuse sky radiation) at the Earth’s surface is examined based on pyranometer measurements at about 400~sites. The period of the study covers in general the last 50 years. For Europe the study is extended to the beginning of observations in the 1920s and 1930s. Global radiation generally increased in Europe from the 1920s to the 1950s. After the late 1950s and early 1960s global radiation began to decrease in most areas of the world at a mean rate of 0.7 Wm⁻²a⁻¹ until 1980s, thereafter 75%; of the stations showed a recovery at a mean rate of 0.7 Wm⁻²a⁻¹. All stations in the Polar region, which are far from aerosol sources, also show this pattern of change. At the remaining 25% of the stations the decrease has continued to present. These regions are a part of China, most of India, and Central Africa. Both during the declining and recovering phases global radiation observed under the cloudless condition also followed the same tendency, indicating the simultaneous and parallel changes of aerosol and cloud conditions. Long-term observations of total zenith transmittance of the atmosphere indicate a decrease in transmittance to the mid 1980s and an increase after this period. Since the brighter and darker periods correspond to relatively warmer and colder periods, the present study offers the possibility to quantitatively evaluate the mutual relationships between the solar irradiance, atmospheric transmittance, cloud conditions and air temperature.     

Wind in the Solar Corona: Dynamics and Composition

The dynamics of the solar corona as observed during solar minimum with the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer, UVCS, on SOHO is discussed. The large quiescent coronal streamers existing during this phase of the solar cycle are very likely composed by sub-streamers, formed by closed loops and separated by open field lines that are channelling a slow plasma that flows close to the heliospheric current sheet. The polar coronal holes, with magnetic topology significantly varying from their core to their edges, emit fast wind in their central region and slow wind close to the streamer boundary. The transition from fast to slow wind then appears to be gradual in the corona, in contrast with the sharp transition between the two wind regimes observed in the heliosphere. It is suggested that speed, abundance and kinetic energy of the wind are modulated by the topology of the coronal magnetic field. Energy deposition occurs both in the slow and fast wind but its effect on the kinetic temperature and expansion rate is different for the slow and fast wind.     

新型太阳能利用装置的研究

对目前太阳能的几种常见的应用领域及相关装置进行了分析和研究,并在此基础上,结合相关理论,设计了利用太阳能的新型装置,如:太阳能房、太阳能热发电装置、聚光式太阳能电池发电装置等,这些装置将为更好地利用太阳能开辟新的途径.太阳能作为一种新兴的可再生能源有着不可限量的发展前景.