Study of the influence of solar variability on a regional (Indian) climate: 1901-2007

TL;DR

This study analyzes over a century of Indian temperature data to explore how solar activity influences regional climate, revealing correlations that suggest solar variability may impact ongoing climate change.

Contribution

It demonstrates the relationship between solar activity, especially sunspot cycles, and Indian temperature variations over long time scales.

Findings

Solar variability correlates with Indian temperature changes.

Sunspot numbers during magnetic epochs better explain temperature variations.

Results suggest solar influence on climate persists and warrants further study.

Abstract

We use Indian temperature data of more than 100 years to study the influence of solar activity on climate. We study the Sun-climate relationship by averaging solar and climate data at various time scales; decadal, solar activity and solar magnetic cycles. We also consider the minimum and maximum values of sunspot number (SSN) during each solar cycle. This parameter SSN is correlated better with Indian temperature when these data are averaged over solar magnetic polarity epochs (SSN maximum to maximum). Our results indicate that the solar variability may still be contributing to ongoing climate change and suggest for more investigations.