ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of scientific disciplines involved in understanding the role of solar influences in decadal climate variability (DCV). Life on the Earth cannot exist without solar energy. This central fact was known to humans since pre-historic times, reiterated every day by the rising of the Sun, and every year by the Sun’s apparent north–south motion and the resultant seasonality of weather and climate. The Sun’s energy originates from nuclear reactions in the Sun’s core. The chapter describes the Sun’s structure and composition, and its emissions. It also describes associations between Sunspots and solar emissions, and the Earth’s paleoclimate variability and instrument-observed climate variability, respectively. The chapter reviews various hypothesized mechanisms and simulations with a variety of climate models to understand solar influences on the Earth’s climate at decadal timescales.
