SPOTS ON THE SUN

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 134, 3 December 1935, Page 13

SPOTS ON THE SUN

EFFECT ON WEATHER

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION

Recently there have been numerous and large spots on the sun, and further activity in this direction is expected. Recently, too, the weather has been very broken and unseasonable, quite unlike the. early months of last summer when it was practically continuously line and hot and when, incidentally, the sun was very free from spots. Putting two and two together, it is very easy to. make four and to attribute last summer's fine weather to the fact that the sun was quiescent, and at the same time to say that the present summer cannot be expected to be anything to boast about owing to the spots on the sun. There are not wanting prophets who are saying that, while at the same time there are not wanting those who maintain that there is no relation between the spottiness of the sun .and the weather.. To prove matters conclusively either way is not possible: all that can be done is to weigh up the evidence for and against in the light of all available data. To start with, it is obvious that if sunspots and weather are related, then it is the world's weather as a whole which must be considered, not what takes place in the remote and small corner occupied by N,ew Zealand. This may be God's Own Country, but as yet, as far as we know, old Sol has not put in any special claim for owner-ship.-One can hardly expect the sun to discriminate and to turn the spotlights on to one particular area at: the expense of another.

If last summer's fine weather enjoyed by New Zealand as a whole was due to the relative absence of sunspots, how was it that Australia had at the same time a bad summer? The same sun must be held responsible for both. To be logical, one must say that if New Zealand is to be deprived of any decent summer this year on account of the sunspots, then the rest of the world should at the same time have bad weather. ■

The problem as to whether sunspots and weather are in any way related cannot be regarded as a local one: it j must be considered as a world-wide j one. Is there any evidence, therefore, that the world's weather as a whole is affected by the activity going on in the sun in the way of spots? One of the difficulties in obtaining a direct answer to this question lies in the fact that scientific observation of the sun and the weather has been going on for what is, after all, a very: short period. To observe the effect of sunspot cycles and to deduce theories therefrom really needs observation over a far greater number of years than that for which data is available. WHAT EXPERTS THINK. ' | There are not wanting meteorologists of standing who maintain that there is some connection between sunspot cycles and the world's, weather, but European meteorologists as a whole do not hold with this theory. Dr. E. Kidson, investigating the subject from the point of view of the weather in* Australia and New Zealand, is of the opinion that, during- the periods of greatest sunspot activity the rainfall 'may perhaps be slightly greater than during the period of minimum activity, especially in the North Island, but as far as temperatures are concerned there is no noticeable correspondence.

New Zealand being a country where anyone is at liberty to hold whatever opinions he or she likes, anyone is at liberty to believe that there will be no summer worthy'of thename this year owing to the sunspots. On the other hand, the prolific flowering of the cabbage trees, or any one phenomenon, may induce others to hold the opposite opinion that the summer, is going to be c sood one after all. No matter which opinion is held, there is: no danger of being burnt at the' stake for it, as there might have been a few hundred years ago; The next few months will show which set of opinions has been right, but whatever the summer turns out to be in New Zealand, the sunspot theory will not be proved one way or the other.