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Science 11 January 1980:
Vol. 207. no. 4427, pp. 177 - 179
DOI: 10.1126/science.207.4427.177
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Articles

Direct Measurement of Solar Luminosity Variation

R. C. WILLSON 1, C. H. DUNCAN 2, and J. GEIST 3

1 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 91103
2 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
3 National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. 20234

Two rocket flights of an absolute pyrheliometer, separated by 30 months, indicate an increase in solar luminosity (solar constant) of 0.4 percent. The significance of this result is considered in light of the instrument performance during the rocket flights and of pre- and postflight intercomparisons with independently maintained pyrheliometers. There is a high probability that the measured difference is real. Additional observations are required to determine whether the difference results from random fluctuations in solar luminosity, a nonrandom change of short duration, or a sustained change that has climatological significance.

Submitted on September 6, 1979
Revised on November 13, 1979


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Solar variability as a contributing factor to Holocene climatic change.
L. D. D. Harvey and L.D. Danny Harvey (1980)
Progress in Physical Geography 4, 487-530
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)