THE SUN’S HEAT. NO ICE AGE COMING. 01 Sept 1923. It is unquestionable that these fluctuations must produce a meteorological effect, altering the conditions of temperature and rainfall, but the complexity of the problem is exceedingly great owing to the ceaseless interchange going on in the atmosphere between the tropics, the temperate zone, and the polar regions.
THE SUN’S HEAT. (1923, September 1). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), p. 15. Retrieved September 8, 2021, from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/37202667?searchTerm=new%20ice%20age%20coming&searchLimits=#
To suppose that the sun is becoming permanently less hot and that the earth is approaching an ice age is totally unwarranted.
In view of statements which have appeared recently that a perceptible diminution in the sun’s output of heat has been observed, and that if certain conditions continue the earth within two centuries may enter into another ice age, it will be of interest (writes the Government Astronomer, Mr. G. F. Dodwell) to review some of the facts concerning solar radiation and to what extent it is effective in warming the surface of the earth.
The precise study of the sun’s radiation was practically initiated with the invention by Langiey (director of Allegheny Observatory and later secretary of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington) of the bolometer in 1881, an extraordinarily sensitive instrument with which a change of one-millionth of a degree of temperature could be observed.
By making observations at many places at different altitudes and in different parts of the earth’s surface, that difficult quantity, “the solar constant,”‘ representing the heat that would be received from the sun, independent of its absorption in our turbulent and changeable atmosphere, has at last been measured with a fair degree of accuracy.
Langley’s work was continued by Dr. C. G. Abbot, and he has found not only that the solar constant waxes and wanes in harmony with the sunspot period, but also that there are short period fluctuations down to a period of a few days.
It is unquestionable that these fluctuations must produce a meteorological effect, altering the conditions of temperature and rainfall, but the complexity of the problem is exceedingly great owing to the ceaseless interchange going on in the atmosphere between the tropics, the temperate zone, and the polar regions.
It is further complicated by the effect of volcanoes belching forth at different times dust and smoke, which alter the factor of atmospheric absorption of the solar heat.