Solar Winds

The solar wind is a stream of charged particles (plasma) ejected from the upper atmosphere of the sun. It consists mostly of electrons and protons. The solar wind streams off of the Sun in all directions at speeds of about 400 km/s (about 1 million miles per hour). The source of the solar wind is the Sun's hot corona.

These particles are able to escape the sun's gravity because of the high temperature of the corona and high kinetic energy

The solar wind is divided into two components; 1.the slow solar wind and 2.the fast solar wind. The slow solar wind has a velocity of about 400 km/s, a temperature of 1.4–1.6×10⁶ K and a composition that is a close match to the corona. The fast solar wind has a typical velocity of 750 km/s, a temperature of 8×10⁵ K and it nearly matches the composition of the Sun's photosphere. The slow solar wind is twice as dense and more variable in intensity than the fast solar wind.

The solar wind is not uniform. Although it is always directed away from the Sun, it changes speed and carries with it magnetic clouds, interacting regions where high speed wind catches up with slow speed wind, and composition variations. The solar wind speed is high (800 km/s) over coronal holes and low (300 km/s) over streamers. These high and low speed streams interact with each other and alternately pass by the Earth as the Sun rotates. These wind speed variations buffet the Earth's magnetic field and can produce storms in the Earth's magnetosphere.

References include NASA
Cosmicopia

coronal mass ejection (CME)

From a variety of general sources: coronal mass ejection (CME)
A typical CME has a three part structure consisting of a cavity of low electron density, a dense core (the prominence, which appears as a bright region on coronagraph images) embedded in this cavity, and a bright leading edge.

CMEs generally originate from groupings of sunspots associated with frequent flares. These regions have closed magnetic field lines, where the magnetic field strength is large enough to allow the containment of the plasma. The CME must open these field lines to escape from the sun. CMEs can also be initiated in quiet sun regions. During solar minimum, CMEs form primarily in the coronal streamer belt near the solar magnetic equator. During solar maximum, CMEs originate from active regions whose latitudinal distribution is more homogeneous.

Coronal Mass Ejections range in speed from about 20 km/s to 2,700 km/s with an average speed (based on SOHO/LASCO measurements between 1996 and 2003) of 489 km/s. The average mass based on coronagraph images is 1.6 x 10¹⁵ g. Due to the two-dimensional nature of the coronagraph measurements, these values are lower limits. The frequency of ejections depends on the phase of the solar cycle: from about one every other day near solar minimum to 5-6 per day near solar maximum.

Global Cooling 2007-2008

Now Public, May 9, 2008
Last year, a dramatic cooling of the planet was measured by all four agencies that track Earth's temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California). It is now estimated that the Earth cooled by about 0.7C in 2007 which is the fastest temperature change on record.

The unfortunate truth is that if the planet continues to cool in the years ahead there will be less total global agriculture and much higher food prices than in these forecasts. A lack of proper planning for global cooling will result in millions of people starving due to a lack of food or from cold-related diseases because the world will not be prepared for the colder climate solution.

Therefore, agricultural and climate planning should include all possible future climate scenarios, both warm and cold.

eWorld VU
In 2008, nearly every day of each of the first four months of the year has recorded an observation of sunspot activity that is equal to zero. In fact, there have been only two days in the last four months when there has been any sunspot activity at all and each small event disappeared very quickly.

Sunspots can be historically correlated with temperature change on Earth. Weak sunspot activity correlates to colder temperatures on earth. In fact, low sunspot activity in the past has led to decades of extremely cold worldwide temperatures.

William Gray - Ocean Cooling

Prominent hurricane forecaster Dr. William M. Gray, a professor at Colorado State University, told the audience at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change on March 4 in New York that a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures related to the salinity (the amount of salt) in ocean water was responsible for some global warming that has taken place. However, he said that same cycle means a period of cooling would begin within 10 years.

Gray criticized NASA scientist and global warming alarmist James Hansen, calling him “the most egregious abuser” of data. According to Gray, Hansen’s alarmism is exaggerated because the models he uses to predict the increase in global warming count on too much water vapor in the atmosphere.

“[S]o he puts that much vapor in his model and of course he gets this,” Gray said. “He must get upper troposphere where the temperature is seven degrees warmer for a doubl[ing of] CO2. Well, the reason he got that was – why this upper-level warming was there – was he put too much water vapor in the model.”

Save the Bears - Pandering to Pandas

Summary from Heartland
The U.S. Department of the Interior decided today to list polar bears as a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act. The decision was based on predictions that future global warming will negatively affect polar bear populations.

Experts contacted by The Heartland Institute note global temperatures have not risen in the past 10 years, and scientists with the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict temperatures will cool for at least the next 10 years. Moreover, polar bear populations have been increasing during recent decades.

Some excerpts include:
"Only by completely ignoring real-world scientific evidence and jumping head-first into the world of special-interest group propaganda can one justify listing polar bears as a threatened species."

Also:

"This decision represents a conflict between politics and science. Polar bear populations have been increasing in recent decades, so there is no current problem. The concern is based on forecasts. However, the government forecasts used to support the decision violate basic scientific principles, and thus provide no scientific support for the listing.

"There are no scientific forecasts that would suggest a reduction in polar bear populations. It would be improper, then, to designate polar bears as endangered. Application of proper forecasting methods suggests a small short-term rise in polar bear populations followed by a leveling off. We provide full disclosure to support these statements at publicpolicyforecasting.com and at theclimatebet.com. In the long term, science will prevail."

Scott Armstrong
Professor
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Ocean Temp Down

From IBD

Understanding the ocean's effect on climate took a quantum leap forward in 2003 when the first of 3,000 new automated ocean buoys were deployed, a significant improvement over earlier buoys that took their measurements mostly at the ocean's surface.

The new buoys, known as Argos, drift along the world's oceans at a depth of about 6,000 feet constantly monitoring the temperature, salinity, and speed of ocean currents. Every 10 days or so a bladder inflates, bringing them to the surface as they take their readings at various depths.

Once on the surface, they transmit their readings to satellites that retransmit them to land-based computers.

The Argos buoys have disappointed global warming alarmists in that they have failed to detect any signs of imminent climate change. As Dr. Josh Willis noted in an interview with National Public Radio, "there has been a very slight cooling" over the buoy's five years of observation.

Actual observations trump computer models and as we learn more about the Earth we start to realize how puny and irrelevant man's contribution to climate change really is.

While irresponsible environmentalists panic over warming, the Earth cools and goes with the ocean flow.

Continued Cooling

NOAA
The average temperature in April 2008 was 51.0 F. This was -1.0 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 29th coolest April in 114 years.

Also, some theories would hold warmer weather leads to more evaporation and thus more rain. Cooler temperatures, less evaporation and less rain.

NOAA reports:
2.39 inches of precipitation fell in April. This was -0.04 inches less than the 1901-2000 average, the 54th driest such month on record.

And, the cycle 24 sunspots have still yet to develop.

Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)

For the past century, global temperatures have tended to mirror 20-to 30-year warming and cooling of the north-central Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO).
The earth warmed from about 1915 to1940, while the PDO was also warming (1925 to 46).
The earth cooled from 1940 to 1975, while the PDO was cooling (1946 to 1977).
The strong global warming from 1976 to 1998 was accompanied by a strong and almost-constant warming of the north-central Pacific.

The new Jason oceanographic satellite shows that 2007 was a “cool” La Nina year.