Climate and Ozone

Is our climate changing due to global warming?

Both natural variations and human activities may cause climate change, and people have thought for a long time that variations in solar out put is the major impact of the climate change.

According to studies we have found out that the solar output is not massive enough to have a great deal of impact at the surface of the earth.

Scientists have trouble measuring variability which is best at ultraviolet wavelengths because they are blocked by the stratospheric ozone layer. They also have discovered that the changes could also indirectly affect the surface.

We find that changes in upper stratospheric ozone and winds affect the flow of energy at altitudes just below these changes, which then affect the next lower levels, and so on. The changes gradually work their way downwards, eventually altering the flow of energy in the lower atmosphere.

The above graph is the estimated solar output reaching Earth over the 20th century. The data is based on historical reconstruction before 1980, and satellite observations afterwards. The net effect is an increase in irradiance at the top of the atmosphere of approximately half a

Watt per meter squared (W/m²). These experiments investigated the atmospheric response to the 11-year solar cycle variability (for example, the two large peaks near 1980 and 1990), which is roughly one-half to one-third the century long increase.

Global Warming is causing extreme weather.

This is a satellite photo of Hurricane Katrina

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/shindell_03/