Solar and anthropogenic influences on climate: Regression analysis and tentative predictions


Solar and anthropogenic influences on climate: Regression analysis and tentative predictions

Stefani, F.

The two main drivers of climate change on sub-Milankovitch time scales are re-assessed by means of a double regression analysis. Evaluating linear combinations of the logarithm of carbon dioxide concentration and the geomagnetic aa-index as a proxy for solar activity, we reproduce the sea surface temperature (HadSST) since the middle of the 19th century with an adjusted R² value of around 87 per cent for a climate sensitivity (of TCR type) in the range of 0.6 K until 1.6 K per doubling of CO₂ . The solution of the regression is quite sensitive: when including data from the last decade, the simultaneous occurrence of a strong El Niño and low aa-values lead to a preponderance of solutions with relatively high climate sensitivities around 1.6 K. If those later data are excluded, the regression delivers a significantly higher weight of the aa-index and correspondingly a lower climate sensitivity going down to 0.6 K. The plausibility of such low values is discussed in view of recent experimental and satellite-borne measurements. We argue that a further decade of data collection will be needed to allow for a reliable distinction between low and high sensitivity values. Based on recent ideas about a quasi-deterministic planetary synchronization of the solar dynamo, we make a first attempt to predict the aa-index and the resulting temperature anomaly for various typical CO₂ scenarios. Even for the highest climate sensitivities, and an unabated linear CO₂ increase, we predict only a mild additional temperature rise of around 1 K until the end of the century, while for the lower values an imminent temperature drop in the near future, followed by a rather flat temperature curve, is prognosticated.

Keywords: Climate change; Solar cycle; Forecast

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-32098
Publ.-Id: 32098