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Possible connection between surface winds, solar activity and the Earth's magnetic field

Nature volume 358, pages 51–53 (1992)Cite this article

Abstract

RECORDS of 14C in tree rings provide a proxy for changes in solar activity on timescales of decades to centuries1,2. Here I report an association between Maunder-type solar cycles recorded in tree rings and fluctuations in surface wind intensity on a roughly 200-year timescale over a period of about 2,000 years in the mid-Holocene. The wind record is preserved as changes in the thickness of varved sediments in Elk Lake, Minnesota, which contain a large aeolian component. Changes in cyclonic activity and tropospheric winds have been reported1–5 to occur in this region a few days after strong coronal mass ejections (CMEs); increases of up to 7% in zonal flow have been reported5 at an altitude of ~ 300 m after strong CMEs in winter. The implication of this association is that century-scale changes in surface winds over Minnesota were the long-term (Maunder-scale) counterpart of short-term (daily) changes in winds after CMEs. The weak magnetic field strength of the Earth at this time6,7 might be relevant to a possible mechanism for the association.

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  1. Department of Geology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131, USA

    Roger Y. Anderson

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Anderson, R. Possible connection between surface winds, solar activity and the Earth's magnetic field. Nature 358, 51–53 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/358051a0

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