Abstract

The correlation between solar cycle variability and the global climate change has become an interesting area of scientific research. Speculations on the role of changes in the sun and their influence on global climate have been ongoing for centuries. Over the past few hundred years, there has been an increase in the number of sun spots and during that period the earth has been getting warmer. Past studies show a strong correlation between solar variability and surface-air temperature of the earth. Data suggest that solar variability affects the terrestrial climate on time- scales of minutes to millions of years. In this paper, an attempt has been made to identify the role of sunspot numbers on the possible solar-influence on global climate.

Keywords: Solar cycle variability; Sun-spots; Terrestrial-climate; Time-scale; Global climate; Total Solar Irradiance (TSI)