Solar-Climatic Relationships in the Light of Standardized Climatic Data

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Abstract
The standardization of climatic data furnishes quite another picture of climatic fluctuations from that obtained with non-standardized data. Standardization of the data shifts the emphasis in the significance of the patterns of change sharply from the winter to the summer season, and from the higher to the lower latitudes. Analysis of the 80–90 year solar-climatic cycle with the use of standardized hemispheric data indicates that this cycle is most significant in lower middle to subtropical latitudes (the data did not extend into the tropics) during the summer and autumn seasons, and apparently reflects primarily a fluctuation of the effective solar constant. A similar analysis of the double sunspot solar-climatic cycle indicates that this cycle is quite as pronounced in middle and higher latitudes, particularly during the winter season. It is suggested that this cycle probably reflects a change of the transmissive properties of the atmosphere, i.e., the greenhouse effect, in such a manner as to sharpen or suppress the relative heat and cold sources of the continental-maritime monsoonal cells of the general circulation. Atmospheric ozone is a possible physical factor in this pattern of climatic change. Climatic data from west-central North America not only reflect to a considerable extent both of these solar-climatic cycles, but also the tendency for the predominant significance of the fluctuations to appear during the summer season and in the lower latitudes. Similarities in the fluctuation of total atmospheric ozone and the primary empirical orthogonal function (continentality function) of winter temperature in the continental United States relative to the double sunspot solar-climatic cycle are noted.

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