Solar activity and climate change

The role that the sun might have played in past and ongoing climate change remains a topic of some controversy, chiefly because only a subset of physical mechanisms leading to solar-terrestrial interactions can be included quantitatively in climate models.

In this talk I will first provide an overview of the various phenomena collectively defining solar activity; then detail how these might influence (or not) terrestrial climate; and finally argue that proper accounting for solar variability may explain some observed terrestrial atmospheric variations that, unlike the global warming observed in the second half of the twentieth century, may not have an anthropogenic origin.

All Faculty, staff and students are invited

Coffee will be served in the Department of Physics

SP-367-11 at 2:30 PM

Information: 514 848-2424 ext. 3270