Abnormal solar activity fuelling global warming: research

A new research suggests that besides carbon emissions, the sun's abnormal activity over the last few years, may also have been responsible for global warming, during the period.

According to data from new satellites, although the sun's activity – measured partly by observing sunspots – has been registered at an unusually low level, the upshot has not been to cool the earth, as it should have been but to warm it.

The research flies in the face of accepted opinions on the effect of the sun's activities on the climate, suggesting as it does that climate models may have to a slight extent over-estimated the sun's role in warming the earth.

Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Colorado tracked the sun's activity from 2004-07, when it was falling. Activity on the sun goes through an 11-year cycle of waxing and waning and in the declining phase sees an overall drop in the amount of radiation reaching the earth.

That should have led to a corresponding drop in the earth's temperature, however the amount of energy received by the earth has increased.

This has led the scientists involved to propose that, conversely, declining solar activity could lead to a slight warming of the earth.