Is Earth’s Surface Insolation Increasing? – Implication for Climate Change Theories (2023 revised version)
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Date
2023
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Abstract
This paper investigates four critical questions: First, has the amount of solar irradiance that the Earth receives (Global horizontal irradiance) increased over time? This question requires that scientific instruments have recorded, over time, data about solar
irradiance. Fortunately, such instruments do exist, and the data has been kept and is available for researchers. The United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Surface Radiation budget (SURFRAD) network has seven stations recording the same type of data over time. The data is available and can be analyzed across different spectrums, (NOAA, 2005). Therefore, Earth-ground insolation data from SURFRAD network was analyzed to answer the question. As a result, it was shown
that the solar irradiance of the Earth's surface had an increasing trend over the years observed at five out of seven stations in the network, and that the amount increased was significant. Second, what does the upward trend in this data reveal? An upward trend, as found in most stations, indicates a slight increase of solar irradiance at surface level by more than one percent during twenty-five years of observation. Third, is this trend significant? The Earth facing the sun always receives 410 x 1018 Joules each hour! A one-percent increase means 410 x 1016 Joules per hour! In comparison, the total amount of energy that humans use in a year is 410 x 1018 Joules, (Harrington, 2015). Current theories indicate that global warming due to anthropogenic forcing causes solar radiation to bounce from the different layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. If this theory is correct, Earth should be receiving less and not more solar irradiance at ground level, (Brown, Maxwell et al. 2018). Fourth, what mechanism could allow more solar rays to penetrate all atmospheric layers, plus, increase irradiance? One theory is that the Earth’s magnetic shield is weakening allowing the kind of irradiance to reach Earth’s surface at increasing levels, as found in this research analysis, (Brooks 2019, and Budyko1969). The implications from the data are clear, nothing heats the planet like the sun. There is no anthropogenic mechanism that has the capacity nor the potential, to increase Earth’s warming like additional sun rays penetrating Earth’s magnetic shield due to its weakening. The cause of the Earth’s shield weakening is treated in (Fernández-Solı́s 2018) research paper that raised the question: “Is there another strand of evidence on the scientific finding that Earth’s magnetic field (the B-field) is weakening?”
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Keywords
Magnetic fields, Earth (Planet), Insolation, Climate change, Global horizontal irradiance