Changes in Atmospheric Constituents and in Radiative Forcing

The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument and investigation as a part of the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is designed to study convection-zone dynamics and the solar dynamo, the origin and evolution of sunspots, active regions, and complexes of activity, the sources and drivers of solar magnetic activity and disturbances, links between the internal processes and dynamics of the corona and heliosphere, and precursors of solar disturbances for space-weather forecasts. A brief overview of the instrument, investigation objectives, and standard data products is presented.

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The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) Investigation for the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

We examine the sensitivity of a climate model to a wide range of radiative forcings, including changes of solar irradiance, atmospheric CO2, O3, CFCs, clouds, aerosols, surface albedo, and a “ghost” forcing introduced at arbitrary heights, latitudes, longitudes, seasons, and times of day. We show that, in general, the climate response, specifically the global mean temperature change, is sensitive to the altitude, latitude, and nature of the forcing; that is, the response to a given forcing can vary by 50% or more depending upon characteristics of the forcing other than its magnitude measured in watts per square meter. The consistency of the response among different forcings is higher, within 20% or better, for most of the globally distributed forcings suspected of influencing global mean temperature in the past century, but exceptions occur for certain changes of ozone or absorbing aerosols, for which the climate response is less well behaved. In all cases the physical basis for the variations of the response can be understood. The principal mechanisms involve alterations of lapse rate and decrease (increase) of large-scale cloud cover in layers that are preferentially heated (cooled). Although the magnitude of these effects must be model-dependent, the existence and sense of the mechanisms appear to be reasonable. Overall, we reaffirm the value of the radiative forcing concept for predicting climate response and for comparative studies of different forcings; indeed, the present results can help improve the accuracy of such analyses and define error estimates. Our results also emphasize the need for measurements having the specificity and precision needed to define poorly known forcings such as absorbing aerosols and ozone change. Available data on aerosol single scatter albedo imply that anthropogenic aerosols cause less cooling than has commonly been assumed. However, negative forcing due to the net ozone change since 1979 appears to have counterbalanced 30–50% of the positive forcing due to the increase of well-mixed greenhouse gases in the same period. As the net ozone change includes halogen-driven ozone depletion with negative radiative forcing and a tropospheric ozone increase with positive radiative forcing, it is possible that the halogen-driven ozone depletion has counterbalanced more than half of the radiative forcing due to well-mixed greenhouse gases since 1979.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/96JD03436

Radiative forcing and climate response

Recent reconstructions of Northern Hemisphere temperatures and climate forcing over the past 1000 years allow the warming of the 20th century to be placed within a historical context and various mechanisms of climate change to be tested. Comparisons of observations with simulations from an energy balance climate model indicate that as much as 41 to 64% of preanthropogenic (pre-1850) decadal-scale temperature variations was due to changes in solar irradiance and volcanism. Removal of the forced response from reconstructed temperature time series yields residuals that show similar variability to those of control runs of coupled models, thereby lending support to the models' value as estimates of low-frequency variability in the climate system. Removal of all forcing except greenhouse gases from the ∼1000-year time series results in a residual with a very large late-20th-century warming that closely agrees with the response predicted from greenhouse gas forcing. The combination of a unique level of temperature increase in the late 20th century and improved constraints on the role of natural variability provides further evidence that the greenhouse effect has already established itself above the level of natural variability in the climate system. A 21st-century global warming projection far exceeds the natural variability of the past 1000 years and is greater than the best estimate of global temperature change for the last interglacial.

/pdf/causes-of-climate-change-over-the-past-1000-years-yieue1fhhz.pdf

Causes of Climate Change Over the Past 1000 Years

The Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) aboard the Hinode satellite (formerly called Solar-B) consists of the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) and the Focal Plane Package (FPP). The OTA is a 50-cm diffraction-limited Gregorian telescope, and the FPP includes the narrowband filtergraph (NFI) and the broadband filtergraph (BFI), plus the Stokes Spectro-Polarimeter (SP). The SOT provides unprecedented high-resolution photometric and vector magnetic images of the photosphere and chromosphere with a very stable point spread function and is equipped with an image-stabilization system with performance better than 0.01 arcsec rms. Together with the other two instruments on Hinode (the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS)), the SOT is poised to address many fundamental questions about solar magnetohydrodynamics. This paper provides an overview; the details of the instrument are presented in a series of companion papers.

https://opensky.ucar.edu/islandora/object/articles%3A6218/datastream/PDF/view

The Solar Optical Telescope for the Hinode Mission: An Overview

The Possible Ascent of a Closed Magnetic System through the Photosphere

The vector magnetic field structure of a small, symmetric sunspot observed very close to disk center has been explored using data from the High Altitude Observatory/National Solar Observatory Advanced Stokes Polarimeter (ASP). This instrument provides, for the first time, quantitative information on sunspot photospheric vector magnetic fields with high angular resolution, as derived from full Stokes profiles of the Zeeman-sensitive Fe I line pair at 630 nm

Stokes profile analysis and vector magnetic fields. VI: Fine scale structure of a sunspot

We present observations taken with the Advanced Stokes Polarimeter (ASP) in active-region plages and study the frequency distribution of the magnetic field strength (B), inclination with respect to vertical (γ), azimuthal orientation (χ), and filling factor (f). The most common values at disk center are B = 1400 G, γ < 10°, no preferred east-west orientation, and f = 15%. At disk center, there is a component of weak (<1000 G), more horizontal fields that corresponds to arching field lines connecting footpoints of different polarities. The center-to-limb variation (CLV) of the field strength shows that, close to the limb (μ = 0.3), the field strength is reduced to 800 G from its disk-center value. This can be interpreted as a gradient of B with height in solar plages of around -3 G km-1. From this CLV study, we also deduce that magnetic field lines remain vertical for the entire range of heights involved. A similar analysis is performed for structures found in active regions that show a continuous distribution of azimuths (resembling sunspots) but that do not have a darkening in continuum. These "azimuth centers" show slightly larger values of B than normal plages, in particular at their magnetic center. Filling factors are also larger on average for these structures. The velocities in the magnetic component of active regions have been studied for both averaged Stokes profiles over the entire active region and for the spatially resolved data. The averaged profiles (more representative of high filling factor regions) do not show any significant mean velocities. However, the spatial average of Doppler velocities derived from the spatially resolved profiles (i.e., unweighted by filling factor) show a net redshift at disk center of 200 m s-1. The spatially resolved velocities show a strong dependence on filling factor. Both mean velocities and standard deviations are reduced when the filling factor increases. This is interpreted as a reduction of the p-mode amplitude within the magnetic component. Strong evidence for velocities transverse to the magnetic field lines has been found. Typical rms values are between 200 and 300 m s-1, depending on the filling factor. The possible importance of these transverse motions for the dynamics of the upper atmospheric layers is discussed. The asymmetries of the Stokes profiles and their CLV have been studied. The averaged Stokes V profiles show amplitude and area asymmetries that are positive at disk center and become negative at the limb. Both asymmetries, and for the two Fe I lines, are maximized away from disk center. The spatially resolved amplitude asymmetries show a clear dependence on filling factor: the larger the filling factor, the smaller the amplitude asymmetry. On the other hand, the area asymmetry is almost independent of the filling factor. The only observed dependence is the existence of negative area-asymmetry profiles at disk center for filling factors smaller than 0.2. Around 20% of the observed points in a given plage have negative area asymmetry. The amplitude asymmetry of Stokes V is, on the other hand, always positive. The amplitude asymmetries of the linear polarization profiles are observed to have the same sign as the Stokes V profiles. Similarly, the same CLV variation of the linear polarization amplitude asymmetries as for Stokes V has been found. The scenarios in which this similarity can exist are studied in some detail.

Active Region Magnetic Fields. I. Plage Fields

The coincidence between the Maunder Minimum of solar magnetic activity from 1645 to 1715 and the coldest temperatures of the Little Ice Age raises the question of possible solar forcing of the Earth's climate. Using a correlation which we find between measured total solar irradiance (corrected for sunspot effects) and a Ca II surrogate for bright magnetic features, we estimate the Sun's radiative output in the absence of such features to be 1365.43 w/m2, or 0.15% below its mean value of 1367.54 W/m2 measured during the period 1980 to 1986 by the ACRIM experiment. Observations of extant solar-type stars suggest that the Ca II surrogate vas darker during the Maunder Minimum. Allowing for this, we estimate the total solar irradiance to be 1364.28 W/m2 or 0.24% below its mean value for the 1980 to 1986 period. The decrease in the global equilibrium temperature of the Earth due to a decrease of 0.24% in total solar irradiance lies in the range from 0.2° C to 0.6° C, which can be compared with the approximately 1° C cooling experienced during the Little Ice Age, relative to the present.

Estimating the Sun's radiative output during the Maunder Minimum

A new Stokes polarimeter for high spatial resolution quantitative measurement of magnetic fields at multiple heights in the solar atmosphere has been constructed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Solar Observatory. The instrument uses the Vacuum Tower Telescope at Sunspot, New Mexico, and its existing horizontal spectrograph, universal birefringment filter, and image motion stabilization system. The polarimeter uses a rotating retarder polarization modulator with polarization calibration optics. Multiple paired CCDs are used for detection followed by video processing to produce spatial maps of the full state of polarization in restricted regions of the solar spectrum. Two spectral regions encompassing lines sensitive to the Zeeman effect, which form in the photosphere and low chromosphere, are recorded simultaneously. Significant developments include: construction of the new telescope post focus optical arrangement, creation of a polarization model for the telescope, construction of high-speed, low-noise solid state cameras, and construction of computer hardware for receiving and processing high-rate 12-bit digital data.

Andrew Skumanich

Papers

The Possible Ascent of a Closed Magnetic System through the Photosphere

Stokes profile analysis and vector magnetic fields. VI: Fine scale structure of a sunspot

Active Region Magnetic Fields. I. Plage Fields

Estimating the Sun's radiative output during the Maunder Minimum

Advanced Stokes polarimeter: a new instrument for solar magnetic field research