Solar variability and climate
Research report (imported) 2017 - Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
Summary
The Sun supplies Earth with light and warmth. It is an unfailing but not fully constant energy source. About 40 years of space-based monitoring of solar irradiance revealed its variations on all time scales that have ever been observed (minutes to decades). The variability on time scales of about a day or longer is driven by the restless solar magnetic field. Knowing how the surface magnetic field changed in the past, it is possible to reconstruct variations in the solar brightness.