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Published online 27 August 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.869

News

Sunspots stir oceans

Variations in the Sun's brightness may have a big role in Pacific precipitation.

Computer simulations are showing how tiny variations in the Sun's brightness can have a big influence on weather above the Pacific Ocean.

The simulations match observations that show precipitation in the eastern Pacific varies with the Sun's brightness over an 11-year cycle.

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  • Models are not science. Models, at best, are simplifications that may allow some fatal flaw analysis. e need to get serious about impirical studies and leave the models unpublished. Examples are plentiful, but I think the EPA / polar bear reactions are junk science. The bear populations are in no way endangered. Their numbers have grown very largely because of Canada's actions against poaching. The clans on central Baffin Island have dropped in numbers, but this in an area of the arctic that is cooling!

    • 28 Aug, 2009
    • Posted by: Francis Manns