Solar wind and Earth [credit: NASA]
H/T Tallbloke
This 2017 Chinese study is here.
Below is the Summary — obviously the full info and graphics can be viewed via the link.
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Many studies presented that solar variability does play a significant role in affecting the Earth’s climate change. Almost all of previous studies focused on the effects of solar total irradiation energy.
As the second major source, the solar wind energy flux exhibits more significant long-term variations, but its effect has been rarely concerned. Although the energy content of solar wind energy flux is of 4-5 orders lower than that of irradiation energy, its long-term variation is much more significant.
For the first time, we find the evidence that the modulation of the solar wind energy flux on the global tropical cyclone activity, and propose a plausible mechanism. We believe this will open a new window to discuss the natural driver of the climate change.
In this study, the global tropical cyclone activity is found to be modulated by solar wind energy flux, but not the solar irradiation and the Earth’s weather and climate parameters. A possible mechanism is proposed and some evidences are also presented.
The findings are helpful to our understanding of solar impact on the Earth’s climate change. More attention on solar wind energy flux is suggested to be paid in the future studies.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Good to see this has just been published in the prestigious JASTP
Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics
Volume 192, 1 October 2019, 104775
Reblogged this on Climate- Science.press.
Thanks again for more clear minded science discussion, Today’s news about the Swedish girl glaring at Trump in the UN is a throwback to the indoctriation of the Hitler Youth, Shame on those who train kids to become robots. Even adults have become robots.
The Chinese don’t have the ideological approach to climate science that prevails in the west.
M.A. Vukcevic was on the right track when he posted the following chart that shows Arctic temperature following closely with the Geomagnetic Field strength and less so with CO2 over time:
http://s1281.photobucket.com/user/nrgxprt/media/Arctic%20temperature%20follows%20Geo%20Field_zpsegxiszzg.jpg.html
L. Svalgaard in 15 June, 2012 commented about short term changes in Bz: “Changes in the short term Bz of the Earth’s magnetic field intensity are due to the solar wind expressed as the maximum intensity of the individual geomagnetic storms as indicated by the Ap max.
Vukcevic’s response added his thoughts on long term changes in Bz: “Changes in the longer term Bz of the Earth’s magnetic field intensity are not due to the solar wind from the sun’s sunspot activity as expressed by the SSN, but are due to the maximum intensity of the individual geomagnetic storms as indicated by the Ap max. ”
It does appear that the solar wind imparts energy to the lower atmosphere and that could very well explain the acceleration of the wind speed in tropical storms and hurricanes. The 2017 Chinese study looked at 6 different solar inputs and determined that Ein (massive solar wind input into the Geospace) was the input that had the best correlation with global cyclone activity intensity.
Not just tropical cyclones, but also hurricanes appear to be affected by solar storms adding energy to the storm system. Recently, people noticed that Hurricane Dorian, which ravaged the Bermuda Islands August 31-September 1, had substantially accelerated wind speed just as a solar storm hit the magnetosphere. A chart showing wind speed versus K- index illustrates this phenomenon:
https://s1281.photobucket.com/user/nrgxprt/media/Dorian%20Hurricane%20Wind%20Speed%20Vs%20K-index_zpskazi9dut.jpg.html
The Planetary K-index (NOAA) characterizes the magnitude of geomagnetic storms and is an indicator of disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field. This follows back onto Vukcevic’s chart of the Arctic which is likely showing added energy to the Arctic region. This could be explained as follows: “Massive solar wind energy flux entering into geospace (Ein) via magnetic reconnection or viscous interaction can heat the Earth’s atmosphere by two major approaches, auroral particle precipitation and Joule heating (Vasyliunas, 2011).”
We live in interesting times, when solar activity is being investigated for much more input to the geospace than just TSI.
My, my what a notion!
The sun affecting the weather!?
I suppose next someone will say the sun affects our climate …
There are two major forms of the solar irradiance, electromagnetic radiation
and corpuscular radiation. – from paper intro
They unnecessarily and wrongly redefined solar irradiance to include particle radiation.
Thus, 1-yr time delay of the modulation of Ein on TC activities is expected. The correlation coecient between Ein and ACE is indeed even better of 0.466 if 1-yr time delay is considered. – page 8
The 1-year delay rules out real-time solar wind forcing that is usually invoked [re Dorian].
In short, the solar wind energy ux can heat the atmosphere unevenly by ring current precipitation, auroral electron precipitation, and Joule heating, especially during geomagnetic active time period. Such atmosphere heating is usually occurred at the altitude of 80-200 km, which is called thermosphere. The detailed coupling between thermosphere and troposphere is not clear so far. However, the modulation of thermospheric temperature by solar wind energy ux could cause indirectly dynamic variation in the lower atmosphere (Kodera and Kuroda, 2002).
The mechanism supposedly involves a heated high atmosphere driving high ocean evaporation, lol.
Where is evidence of energy transfer from the thermosphere to the ocean Aug31-Sep2 for Dorian?
@tom0mason: Lean’s PMOD reconstruction is obsolete.
Did this get buried somewhere along the way?
Sun’s Activity Increased in Past Century, Study Confirms
September 26, 2006 Science & Astronomy
Many studies have attempted to determine whether there is an upward trend in the average magnitude of sunspots and solar flares over time, but few firm conclusions have been reached.
Now, an international team of researchers led by Ilya Usoskin of the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory at the University of Oulu, Finland, may have the answer. They examined meteorites that had fallen to Earth over the past 240 years. By analyzing the amount of titanium 44, a radioactive isotope, the team found a significant increase in the Sun’s radioactive output during the 20th century.
Over the past few decades, however, they found the solar activity has stabilized at this higher-than-historic level.
Prior research relied on measurements of certain radioactive elements within tree rings and in the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, which can be altered by terrestrial processes, not just by solar activity. The isotope measured in the new study is not affected by conditions on Earth.
The results, detailed in this week’s issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters, “confirm that there was indeed an increase in solar activity over the last 100 years or so,” Usoskin told SPACE.com. [bold added]
https://www.space.com/2942-sun-activity-increased-century-study-confirms.html
Sept. 23, 2008: In a briefing today at NASA headquarters, solar physicists announced that the solar wind is losing power.
“The average pressure of the solar wind has dropped more than 20% since the mid-1990s,” says Dave McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. “This is the weakest it’s been since we began monitoring solar wind almost 50 years ago.”
https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/23sep_solarwind/
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Not rocket science?…
NASA News & Feature Releases
Link Between Solar Cycle and Climate is Blowin’ in the Wind
Apr. 8, 1999
Researchers have found that the variations in the energy given off from the sun effect the Earth’s wind patterns and thus the climate of the planet, according to results of a new study published in the April 9 issue of Science.
https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/19990408/
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NASA Study Finds Increasing Solar Trend That Can Change Climate
Date: March 21, 2003
Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Summary:
Since the late 1970s, the amount of solar radiation the sun emits, during times of quiet sunspot activity, has increased by nearly .05 percent per decade, according to a NASA funded study. “This trend is important because, if sustained over many decades, it could cause significant climate change,” said Richard Willson, a researcher affiliated with NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University’s Earth Institute, New York.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/03/030321075236.htm
2005 was a big hurricane year, so let’s see if there was a thermosphere link to the surface:
It seems the correlations of influences on the Earth’s magnetic field are better than those of CO2 and temperature. This graph is from my website.
From spaceweather.com today:
Contrary to the sound of it, “Solar Minimum” is not boring. During this phase of the solar cycle, the sun’s magnetic field weakens, allowing cosmic rays to enter the solar system. This doses astronauts and possibly air travelers with extra radiation. The sun also dims, especially at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, causing the upper atmosphere to cool and collapse. Space junk accumulates in Earth orbit as a result. Finally, streams of solar wind punch through the sun’s weakening magnetic field, lashing Earth with gaseous material that can cause geomagnetic storms. (One such stream is due later this week on Sept. 27-28.) [bold added]
http://spaceweather.com