February 1, 2008 - It's Friday and I'm getting sick. My throat is sore and I've got a runny nose. It makes for a less than fun me to have around. To make matters worse, I've got a gig tonight. I had to run home at lunch time to pick up some paperwork, and Ken offered to buy lunch if I picked up the pizza on the way back from my house. It was nice getting free pizza for lunch, but Pizza Hut remains one of my least favorite. I would just as soon have Hungry Howies. After work I drove down to the Bradenton Yacht Club to play a gig with Bonnie. There were a lot more people at the club tonight than the last time we played here. I hear it is because of the snowbirds down from up north. My nose kept running the whole time I was playing. A few times I had to hold back a sneeze just so that I could finish a phrase on the sax. I drove home and went straight to bed. But it's time to continue the lessons on global warming. Last time I mentioned there were two factors to consider in global climate change. The first is the sun. Does the output of the sun vary enough to change the temperature on our planet? There are three things about the sun that might influence this. First, since it is essentially a thermonuclear explosion that will last millions of years, it is going to be somewhat unpredictable, at least as far as we know about thermonuclear explosions. But it turns out that there are some things about the sun that are predictable, and quite strange. The sun has sun spots. These are dark areas. Dark areas generally produce a lower temperature output. However, the area immediately surrounding the sun spots are actually intensely white hot, and overpower the sun spot, effectively creating a hotter temperature output at the region of the sun spot. And while it may seem random, sun spots have an approximate 11 year cycle. Every 11 years, there is a larger number of sunspots and then a recession back to a low number. During the 11 years, the heat output of the sun increases and then decreases. This trend has been observed for more than 300 years, and it is closely tied to another interesting aspect of the sun. The sun is a giant ball of gas, so it doesn't have to behave how a solid planet does. So it doesn't. The equatorial region of the sun actually rotates faster than the poles. Thus, it effectively ties itself into a big knot. Similar to the sun spot period, Every 22 years (2 times 11) the sun switches polarity. That would be similar to the north pole suddenly becoming negatively charged and the south pole becoming postively charged. Compasses that point North would suddenly point South. But this recurs on the sun every 22 years. So the sun does vary in its heat output, and generally it does so at a predictable periodic rate.