Image credit: interactivestars.com
Not exactly a new idea, but worth pursuing. Given the present feverish pursuit of supposedly climate-related policies that attempt to counter imagined human-caused effects, all known aspects of natural variation must be highlighted and included in models.
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New analysis suggests that the Moon might be an unappreciated factor in climate change and, according to researchers from the Universities of East Anglia and Reading, its influence “cannot be discounted as an important driver of multidecadal variability of global temperature.”
It’s a suggestion that is bound to prompt debate and a possible reassessment of the relative influence of human factors on climate change in the past and the future when the lunar effect is included, says Dr. David Whitehouse @ Net Zero Watch.
It arises from the so-called lunar nodal cycle of 18.6 years caused by variations in the angle of the Moon’s orbital plane. During this period the Moon’s orbit “wobbles” between plus or minus 5 degrees relative to the Earth’s equator.
When the lunar plane tilts away from the equatorial plane, the tides on Earth are reduced. When the Moon’s orbit is aligned with the Earth’s equator, the tides are exaggerated.
It is suggested that the lunar connection to climate is through the modulation of ocean tides the dissipation of which are a major influence in mixing in the world’s oceans.
Some studies have been carried out suggesting a lunar link with the circulation of the Pacific Ocean. Now the researchers detect this cyclic signal in global and regional surface air temperature having amplitudes of 0.1 degree C and also in ocean heat uptake and ocean heat content.
The possible lunar signal in global surface air temperature and heat uptake are coincident with the so-called hiatus – the slowdown in global warming in the first decade of the 21st century.
Extrapolating this influence into the future the researchers say,
Our results suggest that the contribution of the lunar nodal cycle to global temperature should be negative in the mid-2020s before becoming positive again in the early-2030s.”
The signal is also present and possibly influencing warmer than average Arctic surface temperatures at the same time as the global warming hiatus. Enhanced energy input in the Arctic is found during the period 2007-2011. The all-time low in Arctic ice extent was in 2012 and has not yet been surpassed.
The researchers say that the lunar effect should be implemented in future climate models “in order that they better represent the effect of this repeatable and predictable source of climate variability on the impacts of climate change.”
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Related Talkshop post: Ian Wilson: 18.6 year lunar cycle in high rainfall years in Victoria (2014)
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
2019 research:
Tide Gauge Records Show That the 18.61-Year Nodal Tidal Cycle Can Change High Water Levels by up to 30 cm
We find that nodal modulation has the largest influence on the monthly highest water levels at locations in the Gulf of Tonkin, in the Bristol Channel, and in the English Channel, amounting up to 30 cm in range, and the nodal modulation in the diurnal and semidiurnal locations will peak again in 2025 and 2034, respectively, with the potential for high levels of coastal hazard in the respective regions.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018JC014695
[…] The Moon’s climate influence detected by researchers […]
Old calculations showed that the moon affected the earth way more in the past (tides), as the distance between the two objects is ‘constantly’ increasing since the moon was created.
W8 a meenit – before anyone elses says it: the Moon and the Sun rotate AROUND the Earth ?
Something Saighdear says: ” the Moon and the Sun rotate AROUND the Earth”. Relatively speaking they do. And the implications are multifold. Some:
From a gravity point of view: the moon on its own (or not quite) seems to effect tides, ocean – and land – but not apparently synchronously. Apparently this effects ground water levels, thus irrigation pumping quantities. Likewise table-water level, and thus land evaporation and vegetative transpiration. The ancients had a rule re time in the lunar monthly cycle when to sow or plant (which is circumvented in greenhouses).
Historically, ancient sources say they feared the times (certain times it now seems) when the sun and moon were together in the sky. At nodes, not just from eclipses. And maybe with Jupiter’s consent/presence.
As far as I remember, Piers Corbyn mentioned this years ago applying it to his Weather forecasts and as you all know has been campaigning against all the CO2 propaganda for many a year now.
This was written:
Now the researchers detect this cyclic signal in global and regional surface air temperature having amplitudes of 0.1 degree C and also in ocean heat uptake and ocean heat content.
The signal is also present and possibly influencing warmer than average Arctic surface temperatures at the same time as the global warming hiatus. Enhanced energy input in the Arctic is found during the period 2007-2011. The all-time low in Arctic ice extent was in 2012 and has not yet been surpassed.
The researchers say that the lunar effect should be implemented in future climate models “in order that they better represent the effect of this repeatable and predictable source of climate variability on the impacts of climate change.”
Climate changes with natural alternating warmer and colder time periods. They now want to factor in one more natural correlation with a 0.1 degree temperature change correlation but they do not want to study and understand the natural factors that correlate with several degree, consistently alternating with some unknown natural correlation or cause, because that would be too difficult.
This new factor is one more of their Gas-Lighting-Distractions.
Lunar standstill:
A lunar standstill or lunistice is when the moon reaches its furthest north or furthest south point during the course of a month (specifically a draconic month of about 27.2 days). The declination (a celestial coordinate measured as the angle from the celestial equator, analogous to latitude) at lunar standstill varies in a cycle 18.6 years long between 18.134° (north or south) and 28.725° (north or south), due to lunar precession. These extremes are called the minor and major lunar standstills.
The last minor lunar standstill was in October 2015. The last major lunar standstill was in June 2006, and the next one will be in April 2025.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_standstill
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Alternative graphic…
The Moon’s influence on the Earth’s Climate has been obvious to everybody for thousands of years. You really don’t have to be a Researcher to know that.
One of it’s major influences is in the bio cycles of plants and animals which very much dictates their behaviour.
Imagine how interesting climate science would be if researchers didn’t force everything into the “climate change” straitjacket.
Sidorenkov looks at some of the forces at work…
Synchronization of terrestrial processes with
frequencies of the Earth–Moon–Sun system (2017)
Click to access sidorenkov_2017.pdf
Amazing that they studiously avoid referencing the Moon’s control/influence over the Jet Stream. Apparently, the Polar Vortex is created by butterflies.
comparative note:
sidereal orbital periods
Sidorenkov 2017 (Table 1)
0.24084681724846
0.615197262149213
1.00001741273101
1.8808476386037
11.8626149212868
29.447498973306
84.0168377823409
164.791321013005
Seidelmann 1992 (short-duration model)
0.240846697327135
0.615197263396975
1.00001743371442
1.88084761346252
11.8626151546089
29.4474984673838
84.016845922161
164.791315640078
%difference Sidorenkov 2017 relative to Seidelmann 1992
0.000049791559
-0.000000202823
-0.000002098305
0.000001336694
-0.000001966869
0.000001718048
-0.000009688319
0.000003260443
The all-time low in Arctic ice extent was in 2012 and has not yet been surpassed.
So no correlation with CO2 trends.
Reblogged this on Climate Collections.