We are pleased to announce the next SORCE Science Meeting!
The organizing committee (Bob Cahalan, Greg Kopp, Judith Lean, Peter Pilewskie, and Tom Woods) have been honing in on the best sessions to address Solar and Anthropogenic Impacts on Earth: The Current Solar Minimum and Predictions for Future Decades. We will be meeting in beautiful Keystone, Colorado, May 19-21, 2010. As in the past, this interactive meeting will be an opportunity for cross-disciplinary interaction between solar, climate, and atmospheric scientists. The agenda will consist of invited and contributed oral and poster presentations.
Solar and Anthropogenic Influences on Earth:
The Current Solar Minimum and Predictions for Future Decades
Relative to the past three solar minimum epochs of the space era (1976, 1986 and 1996) the current solar minimum (2008-2009) between solar cycles 23 and 24 is unusually prolonged, with record numbers of spotless days, record low solar polar magnetic fields, and record high levels of cosmic ray flux. Evidence is accumulating for broad ranging terrestrial responses to the current inactivity of the Sun. The lack of global warming since 2002 can be attributed in part to declining solar irradiance, which, together with La Niña cooling, has cancelled much of recent anthropogenic warming. Reduced solar UV irradiance and corresponding lower ozone levels may be obscuring the recovery from anthropogenic ozone depletion by CFCs. In the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, temperatures are anomalously cool and densities are reduced relative to previous solar minima; but these changes may also be related to accumulated greenhouse gas cooling in the upper atmosphere.
Are spectral and total solar irradiance levels lower now than during past minima, and how much will they increase during solar cycle 24? Are we entering a new prolonged period of anomalously low activity such as the Dalton Minimum in the early 1800s? Can we identity anomalous behavior in the solar dynamo and surface flux transport during the current minimum? How are heliospheric changes altering incident cosmic ray fluxes and the Earth’s near-space environment? Can we reliably discern the terrestrial signatures of the current solar inactivity – at the surface, in the stratosphere and in space weather? What does understanding of the present (in the context of the past) infer for the future variability of Earth’s environment?
Motivated by these questions, the 2010 SORCE Meeting will address the current state of and future expectations for the integrated Sun-Earth system. The meeting will be held at the Keystone Resort and Conference Center. Additional activities prior to the SORCE Meeting are in the planning stages.
SORCE Meeting Sessions:
1. This Unique Solar Cycle Minimum
1.1. Total Solar Irradiance (TSI): Comparison of Solar Cycle Minima and Recent Validation Results
1.2. Solar Spectral Irradiance (SSI): Solar Cycle Variation and Comparison of Cycle Minima
1.3. Solar Physics: What do we learn about the Sun from this unique cycle minimum?
2. Forcings During This Solar Minimum and Forecasts for the Next Solar Cycle
2.1. Space Weather Effects Observed During This Solar Cycle Minimum
2.2. Atmosphere and Ozone Change: Has the ozone recovery started yet?
2.3. Climate Change: What’s the future going to be?
3. Recommendations for the Future: How to improve the climate data records?
Please join us!
Mark your calendar today!
