Related papers: Faint young Sun paradox remains
We present a focused parameter study of solar wind - magnetosphere interaction for the young Sun and Earth, $~3.5$ Ga ago, that relies on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations for both the solar wind and the magnetosphere. By simulating the…
This paper describes some of the astronomical effects that could be important for understanding the ice ages, historic climate changes and the recent temperature increase. These include changes in the sun's luminosity, periodic changes in…
Coronal heating has puzzled solar physicists for decades. The question of why the Sun's upper atmosphere is significantly hotter than its lower atmosphere remains a key mystery. It is commonly believed that the source of coronal heating…
(abridged) The Sun's magnetic activity has steadily declined during its main-sequence life. While the solar photospheric luminosity was about 30% lower 4.6 Gyr ago when the Sun arrived on the main sequence compared to present-day levels,…
The Sun has long been considered a constant star, to the extent that its total irradiance was termed the solar constant. It required radiometers in space to detect the small variations in solar irradiance on timescales of the solar rotation…
We compute grids of radiative-convective model atmospheres for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune over a range of intrinsic fluxes and surface gravities. The atmosphere grids serve as an upper boundary condition for models of the thermal…
Observation of the decay of muons produced in the Earth's atmosphere by cosmic ray interactions provides a graphic illustration of the counter-intuitive space-time predictions of special relativity theory. Muons at rest in the atmosphere,…
Conventionally, a habitable planet is one that can support liquid water on its surface. Habitability depends on temperature, which is set by insolation and the greenhouse effect, due mainly to CO2 and water vapor. The CO2 level is increased…
The ability of a planet to maintain surface water, key to life as we know it, depends on solar and planetary energy. As a star ages, it delivers more energy to a planet. As a planet ages it produces less internal heat, which leads to…
Identifying liquid water on the surface of planets is a high priority, as this traditionally defines habitability. One proposed signature of oceans is specular reflection ("glint"), which increases the apparent albedo of a planet at…
Recent analyses indicate that the amount of atmospheric CO2 required to cause dangerous climate change is at most 450 ppm, and likely less than that. Reductions of non-CO2 climate forcings can provide only moderate, albeit important,…
We analyze solar, geomagnetic and cosmic ray flux data along with rainfall and temperature data for almost five solar cycles. We provide evidence of significant influence of solar variability on climate. Specifically, we demonstrate…
Some known relativistic paradoxes are reconsidered for closed spaces, using a simple geometric model. For two twins in a closed space, a real paradox seems to emerge when the traveling twin is moving uniformly along a geodesic and returns…
The question of why we age is a fundamental one. It is about who we are, and it also might have critical practical aspects as we try to find ways to age slower. Or to not age at all. Different reasons point at distinct strategies for the…
Clouds of metal-bearing condensates play a critical role in shaping the emergent spectral energy distributions of the coolest classes of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs, L and T dwarfs. Because condensate clouds in planetary atmospheres…
Fossil turbulence processes are central to turbulence, turbulent mixing, and turbulent diffusion in the ocean and atmosphere, in astrophysics and cosmology, and in most other natural flows. George Gamov suggested in 1954 that galaxies might…
Neutrino mass explanations of the solar and atmospheric neutrino deficits and a hot dark matter component require one of three patterns of those masses, as already pointed out by us. Recently there have been indications of a non-vanishing…
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…
The growing concentrations of the greenhouse gases CO2, CH4 and N2O (GHG) in the atmosphere are often considered as the dominant cause for the global warming during the past decades. The reported temperature data however do not display a…
Seeley and Wordsworth (2021) showed that in small-domain cloud-resolving simulations the pattern of precipitation transforms in extremely hot climates ($\ge$ 320 K) from quasi-steady to organized episodic deluges, with outbursts of heavy…