FP6 priority

1.1.6   Sustainable Development, Global Change and Ecosystems

1.6.3

Title of the proposal

Solar Variability as an Input to the Global Change of the Earth\'s Environment

Institute

Slovak Academy of Sciences, Astronomical Institute
SK-059 60 Tatranska Lomnica, The Slovak Republic

Contact

Research subject for a potential FP6 project

Solar variability is the most direct link between astronomy and humanity. Variability in both the radiative and particle outputs of the Sun has important consequences to Earth. Basically, solar magnetism and its short- and long-termed variabilities are responsible for conditions in the Earth\'s magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere, influencing the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems and endanger human life. Adverse conditions in the space environment can cause disruption of satellite operations, communications, navigation, and electric power distribution grids, leading to a package of socioeconomic loses. Possible influence of solar variability on the climate and biosphere a commonly considered. In this sense, relevant predictions of solar activity and variability are desirable.Our proposal involves collaboration of solar physicists, scientists studying cosmic rays, geo-physicists and, perhaps, investigators in the fields of some oher Earth\'s sciences. To achieve a better understanding of linkage between the solar variability and the Earth\'s environment, we offer analysis of our regular patrol observations (performed for more than half a century) of sunspots, prominences and coronal emission in the light of Fe XIV 530.3 nm spectral line. Our data on the solar corona, as obtained during solar eclipses during three last decades say about behaviour of solar variability, as well.

Recent international cooperation of the research team

Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario CNR, Roma Tor Vergata, Italy
Institute for Geophysics, Astrophysics and Meteorologie (IGAM), University of Graz, Graz, Austria
Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics, Freiburg, Germany

Proposer´s relevant publications related to the research subject

Sykora, J., Badalyan, O.G., Obridko, V.N.: 2000, `\"Coronal holes\" (recorded from 1943) - a source of the solar-induced terrestrial responses ?\', in: Proc. 1st Solar & Space Weather Euroconference \"The Solar Cycle and Terrestrial Climate\", ESA SP-463, pp. 95-100.
Badalyan, O.G., Obridko, V.N., Sykora, J.: 2001, `Brightness of the coronal green line and prediction for activity cycles 23 and 24\', Solar Phys. 199, 421-435.
Sykora, J., Badalyan, O.G., Storini, M.: 2000, `Differences in the zonal behaviour of solar activity are relevant for the solar-terrestrial relations\', in: Proc. 1st Solar & Space Euroconference \"The Solar Cycle and Terrestrial Climate, ESA SP-463, ed. A. Wilson, European Space Agency, Noordwijk, pp. 525-528.
Kudela, K., Rybak, J., Antalova, A., Storini, M., 2002, \'Time Evolution of Low-Frequency Periodicities in Cosmic Ray Intensity\', Solar Phys., 205, 165-175.