Rate This Topic

Average: 0/5

Recent Comments

Greg Osmond
May 10, 2013 09:05PM

I was watching two Minke whales for one hour today near my home in Woody Point, ...
Melvin Lusterio
May 09, 2013 08:05PM

The Good Force be with you! Well done, Team Curiosity! Keep it up! Live fo...
shaymaa elgbaly
May 09, 2013 01:05AM

amazing !
C Michael Hogan
May 08, 2013 09:05PM

Documentation on the Seine barges in the 17th century is scant, but apparently m...

External Forcing

External Forcing

External forcing factors are processes external to Earth and its atmosphere that influence Earth's climate. They include galactic variations, orbital variations, and sunspots.

Dark central region of a planet-sized sunspot. The bright filaments that extend into the sunspot have dark cores that are thousands of kilometers long but only about 100 km wide.

Göran Scharmer, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Swedish Solar Telescope on La Palma

 Galactic Variations

 Orbital Variations

 Sunspots

 

Recently Updated
Model Climate Sensitivity Last Updated on 2013-04-04 at 15:05 The response of climate to a perturbation such as a change in carbon dioxide concentration, or in the flux of energy from the sun, can be divided into two... More »
Milankovitch cycles Last Updated on 2012-08-01 at 12:53 Milankovitch cycles refer to long term variations in the orbit of the Earth which result in changes in climate over periods hundred of thousands of years and are related... More »
Sunspots: Increasing the Solar Energy that Reaches... Last Updated on 2012-05-07 at 18:55 Periodic changes in the alignment between the sun’s rotational axis and the gravitational center of the solar system produces intense fluctuations in vertical magnetic... More »
Solar Energy: The Major Driver of Earth's Climate Last Updated on 2012-05-07 at 18:52 The major driver of Earth’s climate is the amount of solar energy it receives. Three laws relate the solar energy reaching Earth to the planet’s orientation with... More »
Orbital Variations and Solar Energy Last Updated on 2012-05-07 at 18:44 Three characteristics of Earth’s orbit around the sun—obliquity, eccentricity, and precession—change periodically and influence the amount of energy that... More »
Climate Influences from Beyond the Solar System Last Updated on 2012-05-07 at 18:11 The Earth’s climate isn’t just a product of what’s going on within its own atmosphere. Fluctuations in climate are also determined by forcing factors (causes)... More »
  • Articles Articles
  • Blog Blog Posts
  • Gallery Galleries
  • News News
  • Resources Resources
  • Media Videos
  • Include Content from all Sub-Sections
Type Title Author Date
Retrieving data...