AN ORBITAL MOTION SHARED BY SUN AND EARTH
EFFECTING SUNSPOTS AND EARTH WEATHER
By: Dr. John C. Freeman and Jill F. Hasling, Certified Consulting Meteorologists
Weather Research Center 3227 Audley St. Houston, Texas 77098 www.wxresearch.com
A common misconception is that the center of the solar system is the Sun and the planets orbit around the Sun. This is somewhat factual. The four inner planets orbit the Sun, which is in orbit about the center of gravity of the solar system. The five outer planets are the only true orbiters of the center of gravity of the solar system. Therefore, the Sun should not be considered the center of the solar system, the center of gravity of the solar system should be considered the center of the solar system.
Compare the two orbits of Jupiter and Earth. Jupiter is more comparable to the size of the Sun in mass than any other of the eight planets. Jupiter’s mass is just great enough to have some influence over the orbit of the Sun. Since Jupiter orbits the center of gravity of the solar system, and since the Sun is not the actual center of gravity of the solar system, the planet does not actually orbit the Sun. In reality Jupiter maintains its own orbit about the center of gravity of the solar system, as do the other four outer planets Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Earth on the other hand, is small enough in mass and is close enough to the Sun that it orbits the center of the Sun. Earth and the three other inner planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, are the only Sun-orbiting planets in our solar system. Therefore, the Sun moves in its orbit about the center of gravity of the solar system, and should not be considered the center of the solar system.
The Earth shares the motion of the Sun moving through its 1.5 million-mile diameter, 178.7-year orbit about the center of gravity of the solar system. This is comparable to the way the Moon circles the Earth while the Earth revolves about the Sun. This Sun and Earth shared orbit is of tremendous importance to the science of geophysics. This orbit, called the helio-epoch for this research, furnishes the physical link between solar and terrestrial (Earth) phenomena – a link that geophysicists have been seeking for a century and a half.
This can be further explained by comparing two stars of equal mass in orbit. The center of gravity between these two bodies would be a point half way between them. This center of gravity remains stationary as the masses orbit about this center. When large planets are in orbit around the sun, the center is the center of gravity of the solar system. The Sun forms an orbit in response to the orbits of all the large planets due to the pull of gravity that these planets provide. The Sun’s orbit is not as stable as the individual orbits of the planets but almost repeats nearly every 178.7 years. Figure 1 shows this instability of the Sun’s orbital path. Each circle represents one completion of the Sun’s 178.7-year orbit through the solar system. The authors have named this 178.7-year orbital period of the Sun a "helio-epoch". From Figure 1 notice the variance in the sixteen loops around the center of gravity of the solar system. This is evidence that the Sun’s orbit, or helio-epoch, is variable.
Figure 1 is the projection on the plane of the orbit of Jupiter and the orbit of the Sun about the center of gravity of the solar system. The orbit starts in 1820.00 and is complete 178.76 years later in 1998.76. Then a new orbit begins and is followed until 2020.20. A circuit of the center of gravity is made every 8 to 14 years. The sun is about 0.0050 A.U. in radius so that the center of gravity of the solar system is inside and outside the Sun.
Jose [1965] developed a graph when he made use of computers to compare the motion over several hundred years of all the planets and the Sun. The Sun’s orbit ranges from 0 to 1.5 million miles where the radii of orbits of the outer planets range from 480 million to 3,670 million miles. Therefore, the radius of the Sun’s orbit is much smaller than the radii of the orbits of these five outer planets.
The discoveries of Newton and Kepler revealed that the solar system has six major elements. These six elements include the Sun and the five outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto). Together, these elements possess enough mass to influence the solar system in two ways. The first is by moving the Sun under the influence of their orbits. The second is by defining the center of gravity and all of the major orbits of the Solar System. The Sun and each of the five planets with their satellites are in orbit about this center of gravity of the solar system.
Now that the main components of the solar system have been addressed and considered, it is important to also consider the four inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. As previously mentioned, the Sun has satellites of its own just like the Earth does with the Moon. The satellites of the Sun are the four inner planets as they revolve around the center of mass of the Sun. The important factor in this discussion is that Earth is among these four Sun-orbiting planets. Therefore, as the Sun orbits the center of gravity of the solar system, while the Earth is orbiting about the center of the Sun. One can then conclude that the Earth and Sun share this orbit about the center of gravity of the solar system.
Having stated that Earth shares an orbit with the Sun, one must be aware of effects that result from this motion. Several scientists have discussed the effects caused by the Earth-Sun orbit without knowledge of the fact that the orbit is shared. For instance, Jose [1965] and Landscheidt [1976] claimed that the orbit has effects on sunspots on the Sun’s surface. Jose’s work indicated that this helio-epoch of the Sun does cause effects on Sunspots.
Schwabe [1843] discovered and followed the sunspot cycle from 1826 to 1843. In 1848 Rudolf Wolf developed a method for measuring sunspots. This method remains in use with minor variations today. Waldmeir [1961] gives a history of Wolf’s work. Jose [1965] showed that the orbit of the Sun has an effect on sunspots and other phenomena on the Sun as did Landscheidt[1976]. Jose [1965] postulated that the orbit of the Sun caused sunspots. By postulating time derivative of the angular momentum of the curve the Sun’s orbit about the instantaneous center of curvature for the years 1616 to 2024. He showed that years up to 1963 correlated with sunspot cycle. Evidence that the angular velocity of the Earth’s rotation is directly effected by the angular momentum of the Sun’s orbit is shown in Figure 2.
The angular momentum in the Sun’s orbit according to Jose[1965] is plotted with the black squares in Figure 2. The irregular curve plotted with black dots is the angular velocity of the earth derived from the Length of Day[LOD] obtained from the International Earth’s Rotation Service [2002]. Hopfner [1999] indicated that many difference phenomena affect the LOD. The maxima and minima in angular velocity are absolute and well defined. There are fourteen extrema rather than four in the curve for the angular velocity of the earth’s rotation. Nevertheless there is a local minima in the angular velocity of the earth corresponding to each minima in the angular momentum of the Sun’s Orbit and the same for local maxima in the earth’s angular velocity and maxima in the Sun’s orbit.
The year 1955 marks the time that the measurement of the LOD became accurate enough to show local maxima and minima in the angular velocity of the Earth’s rotation. Notice that each maximum or minimum in angular momentum is nearly synchronous with a local maximum and minimum in angular velocity.
Sprung made the following statement in 1880 in a textbook translated by Bigelow [1902]:
"Therefore a connection between the sunspot frequency and the changes in our atmosphere can not be well denied. It is possible that the periodic changes in the atmosphere are not caused directly through sunspots but that both phenomena are brought about through one common or by several interacting causes, whereby a displacement of the periods relative to one another becomes possible."
This says there is a likely common cause or major physical influence on phenomena on the Sun and the Earth that causes phenomena on both bodies with correlations or simultaneity. This is the premise of the research carried out by the authors, Freeman and Hasling, over the last twenty years.
This orbital motion of the Sun has an effect on the Sun. Keep in mind that the Sun is merely a ball of gas. If this orbital motion has effects on this ball of gas we call the Sun, then one could expect it to have similar effects on spherical shells of gas, such as Earth’s atmosphere. Therefore, the Sun-Earth orbital motion has effects on Earth just as it does on the Sun. The Earth does not react the same from this orbital motion as the Sun does. The Sun reacts with changes in Sunspots and other various phenomena. The Earth on the other hand reacts with changing weather and climate. Simultaneous events between the Earth and the Sun in their orbits are shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 is taken from Labitzke and Van Loon [1996] and shows the solar flux of 10.7 cm wave length radiation from the sun [which varies with the Sunspot Cycle] versus the average height of the 30 hPa (30 mb) surface averaged over a large part of the Pacific Ocean. The curves have a high correlation with each other as can be seen in Figure 3. The dark curve with filled dots has a correlation with the lighter curve with the open dots since the former is an average of the latter curve. The curve with square dots is a measure of a solar phenomenon and the other two curves are measures of a terrestrial phenomenon.
The five sets of numbers at the bottom of Figure 3 are data taken from the orbit of the sun. The quantity dp/dt is the time derivative of the instantaneous angular momentum, p, of the orbit of the sun about the instantaneous center of curvature [Jose, 1965]. Note that either a maximum or a minimum in dp/dt occurs near each minimum of the curves. The curves relationship are taken as evidence the orbit of the sun shared by the earth affects solar and terrestrial phenomena.
Landscheidt [1983] and the authors Freeman and Hasling[1999] later wrote about this orbit having effects on Earth’s weather and climate. Freeman and Hasling believe this evidence could provide the long-sought link between phenomena in Earth’s lower atmosphere and various phenomena on the Sun.
Freeman and Hasling[1995, 1999, 2000] used various properties of the motion of the Sun’s orbit to compare with phenomena on the Earth and Sun. Jose[1965] also showed that there was a relationship between the sunspot cycle and a property of the orbit. Landscheidt [1983] began showing synchronous events in the Sun’s orbit with weather phenomena on Earth without any reliance on the sunspot cycle. This orbit was responsible for certain solar phenomena and that this mysterious and unknown link must be at work to cause certain atmospheric phenomena also. Landscheidt[1984-2002] has shown links in the orbit to El Niño and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, the Quasi Biannual Oscillation, and floods in the Po Valley.
Freeman and Hasling[1995] related the Sun’s orbit about the center of gravity of the solar system to the frequency of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin and forecasts of average temperatures for stations across the United States.
Koppen[1873] showed that temperatures were lower during maxima in the sunspot cycle. Koppen[1914] also showed the same was true of global mean temperature. Walker[1915] and Clayton[1915] found similar results that were later confirmed by Craig and Willet[1951]. When the temperatures and solar activity were measured over centuries, the extended period of cold temperatures seems to coincide with minima in sunspot activity as shown by Eddy[1976]. Willet[1955] showed a relationship tendency for hurricanes to travel up the United States’ East Coast. He forecast that the East Coast would experience more hurricanes in the 1990’s, which was verified. Labiteske and Van Loon [1995] made the most acceptable cases for a relationship when they showed that the solar flux of 10.7 cm wave length radiation from the sun controlled the height of the 30 hpa surface over the Pacific Ocean.
When Jose[1965] outlined the various aspects of the orbit he computed the moment of the orbit about the center of mass of the solar system and its time derivative or torque. This is a time dependant periodic function called the torque cycle as named by Landscheidt [1986].
Landscheidt[2002] related various phenomena on the Sun and the Earth to the torque cycle. This cycle was chosen as the best aspect of the orbit of which to relate phenomena. Landscheidt [1986] first used the torque cycle of the Sun’s motion about the center of mass of the solar system to show that the orbit affected certain aspects of solar activity. Landscheidt[1986] used the torque cycle to forecast sunspot cycles.
The fact that the Earth shares the motion of the Sun’s orbit can be ascertained from Newton’s Principia. However, it is important to note that this sharing has not been acknowledged or emphasized by modern day astronomers. The strongest support of this idea is shown in Rhodes W. Fairbridge when he edited "The Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences and Astrogeology" in 1976. The astronomer Clyde Stacy wrote a contributing article called "Time and Astronomic Cycles" for this encyclopedia. In this article he made the following remark:
"In reality, it is the center of mass, or barycenter, of the Earth-moon pair that moves with smooth elliptical orbit about the solar system’s barycenter."
The remark is misleading. It would be more accurate to say that the Earth is in orbit about the center of the Sun and the Sun is in orbit about the center of mass of the solar system.
This shared orbit between the Sun and Earth follows from his work but was not emphasized by Newton. A need for a common physical cause has persisted. The following quote from Sun, Weather, and Climate by Herman and Goldberg [1978] comments on this need:
"In our opinion, there is no conclusive evidence for or against the relationship at this time. We do feel however that the hard statistical evidence that has emerged recently is more than fortuitous and justifies a strong research effort to search for a study of the unidentified physical coupling that may be responsible for the observations."
This is still the status of the link today as shown by the following quotation from Solar Activity on Earth’s Climate by Benestad [2002]:
"We know of hypothesis on links between sunspots and terrestrial temperatures dating as far back as 1656. This question has yet to be resolved and he endeavor still continues today."
Even though many scientists have recognized the effect of the orbit of the Sun on phenomenon on the Earth not one of them recognized that the orbit was shared between the Sun and the Earth.
For whatever reason the fact that the Earth is in orbit about the center of the Sun and the Sun is in orbit about the center of mass of the solar system has not been emphasized by astronomers and other scientists. The consequences that the Earth participating in the Sun’s orbit forms the link between simultaneous events on the Earth and the Sun. This has not been pointed out until now.
The authors would like to acknowledge Myles Standish of JPL who furnished the program that was modified to get the details of the Sun’s Orbit. John M. Nguyen for plotting the details of the sun’s orbit. Marjorie S. Freeman and Erin Harris for providing many hours of editing and revising the text.
Bigelow, F. H., Synchronous Changes in the Solar and Terrestrial Atmosphere. Mon. Weather Review, XXXI, 17, 1903.
Brooks, C.E.P., Climate through the ages. 439 pp., Yale Univ. Press, New Haven 1928.
Clayton, H.H., World Weather. Macmillan, New York, 1923.
Eddy, J. A., The Maunder Minimum, Science 192, 1189, 1976.
Fairbridge, R.W., The Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences and Astrogeology, Reinhold Publishing Company, New York, 1967
Herman, J.R. and R. Goldberg, Sun, Weather and Climate, NASA, Washington, D.C., 1976
Hopfner, Joachim, Interannual Variation in Length of Day and Atmospheric Angular Momentum with Respect to ENSO Cycles, paper presented at the 22nd General Assembly,
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, Birmingham, UK, 12-13 July, 1999.
International Earth’s Rotation Service (2002).
http://www.iers.org/iers/earth/rotation/ut1lod/table3.html. Internet website.
Jose, P. D., Sun’s Motion and Sunspots, Astronomical Journal 10, (1), 193-200, 1965.
Koppen, W., Uber Mehrjahrige Perioden der Witterung, insbesondere uber die 11-jahrige Periode der Temperatur, Z. ost, Ges Meteorol., 8, 241, 1873.
Koppen, W., Luftemperaturen, Sonnenflecken und Vulkanausbruche., Meteorol. Zeitschrift. 31, 305, 1914.
Koppen, W., and A. Wegener, Die Klimate der geologischen Vorzeit, Gebr. Borntrager, Berlin, 256 pp., 1924.
Labitzke, K. and H. van Loon, Connection between the troposphere and stratosphere on a decadal scale, Meteorologisches Institut, Freie Universitat, Berlin, C.-H.-Becker-Weg 6-10, 12165 Berlin, 1995.
Labitzke, K. and H. van Loon, The Signal of the 11-year Sunspot Cycle in the Upper
Troposphere-Lower Troposphere, Report of Stratospheric Research Group,
Meteorologisches Institute, FUB C.-H. Becker neg 6-10, Berlin 12165, Germany, 1996.
Landscheidt, T., Beziehungen zwischen der Sonnenaktvitat und dem Massenzentrum des Sonnensystems, Nachrichten der Olbers-Gessellschaft 100, 1976.
Landscheidt, T., Solar oscillations, sunspot cycles, and climatic change, in Weather and climate responses to solar variations, edited by B.M. McCormac, pp. 293-308, Associated University Press, Boulder, 1983.
Landscheidt, T., Long-range forecast of energetic x-ray bursts based on cycles of flares, in Solar-terrestrial predictions, Proceedings of a workshop at Meudon, 18.-22.
Juni 1984, edited by P.A.Simon, G. Heckman, und M. A., Shea, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, pp. 81-89, Boulder, 1986a.
Landscheidt, T. Long-range forecast of sunspot cycles, in Solar-terrestrial predictions, Proceedings of a workshop at Meudon, 18.-22. Juni 1984, edited by P.A. Simon,
G. Heckman, und M. A., Shea, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, pp. 48-57, Boulder, 1986b.
Landscheidt, T., Long-range forecasts of solar cycles and climate change, in Climate, History, Periodicity, and predictability, edited by M. R. Rampino, J. E. Sanders,
W. S. Newman, und L. K. K"nigsson, van Nostrand Reinhold, pp. 421-445, New York, 1987.
Landscheidt, T., Solar rotation, impulses of the torque in the Sun’s motion, and climatic variation, Climatic Change 12, 265-295, 1988.
Landscheidt, T., Relationship between rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere and impulses of the torque in the Sun’s motion, in Climate impact of solar variability edited by
K.H. Schatten and A. Arking, NASA, 259-266, Greenbelt, 1990.
Landscheidt, T., Global warming or Little Ice Age?, in Holocene cycles, A Jubilee volume in celebration of the 80th birthday of Rhodes W. Fairbridge, edited by C.W. Finkl, The
Coastal Education and Research Foundation (CERF), 371-382, Fort Lauderdale, 1995.
Landscheidt, T., Forecast of global temperature, El Niño, and cloud coverage by astronomical means, in Global Warming. The continuing debate, edited by R. Bate, The European
Science and Environment Forum (ESEF), 172-183, Cambridge, 1998.
Landscheidt, T., Extrema in sunspot cycle linked to sun's motion. Solar Physics 189, 413-424, 1999.
Landscheidt, T., Solar forcing of El Niño and La Nina, ESA Special Publication 463, 135-140/, 2000a.
Landscheidt, T., River Po discharges and cycles of solar activity. Hydrol. Sci. J. 45, 491-493, 2000b.
Motte, A., The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Sir Isaac Newton (1729), Dawsons of Pall Mall, London, 1968.
Schwabe, A.N., Sonen-Beobachtungen, Jhare 1843 Astron. Nacr., 21, 233, 1844.Waldmeir, M., The sunspot activity in the years 1610-1960, Schulthess & Co. AG, Zurich,
Walker, G. T., Correlation in seasonal variations of weather IV: Sunspots and rainfall, Mem. India meteor. Dep., 21(X), 17-60, 1915a.
Walker, G. T., Correlation in seasonal variations of weather V: Sunspots and temperature, Mem. India meteor. Dep., 21(XI), 61-90, 1915b.
Walker, G. T., Correlation in seasonal variation of weather VI: Sunspots and pressures, Mem. India meteor. Dep., 21(XII), 91-118. 1915c.
Willett, H. C., Extrapolation of sunspot-climate relationships, J. Meteor., 8, 1-6, 1951.
Willett, H. C., A study of the tropical hurricane along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, Interregional Insurance Conference, New York, N.Y., Oct. 1955.
Willett, H. C., Colder weather ahead, Saturday Evening Post, 228(39), pp. 23-25, 122-124, 1957a.
Willett, H. C., End of drought in sight, U. S. News and World Report, XLII, 56-58, 1957b.
Willett, H. C., Climatic trends of temperature and precipitation in the continental United States, Proc. Eastern Snow Conference, 1959-60, 55-75.
Willett, H. C., Evidence of solar-climatic relationships, in Climate and our Food Supply, proceedings of a symposium held at the University of Iowa in Ames, May 1964.
Willett, H. C., Solar-climatic relationships in the light of standardized climatic data, J. Atmos. Sci., 22, 120-136, 1965.
FIGURE 3. SYNCHRONOUS EVENTS ON THE SUN AND THE EARTH AND IN THE ORBIT.