The Aurora of 1192: Examining Medieval Europe's Climate Change

  • Thread starter Thread starter wolram
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Aurora
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the historical analysis of climate change in medieval Europe, specifically examining the phenomenon known as the Aurora of 1192 and its potential connections to solar activity and broader climatic shifts. Participants explore the implications of historical climate data and its relationship to significant events such as the Great Famine and the Black Death.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Historical

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants reference the general acceptance among historians that the European climate deteriorated after 1000 AD, linking it to major historical events.
  • One participant challenges the accuracy of attributing climate deterioration solely to a lack of solar storms, noting that sunspots were not systematically observed until much later.
  • Another participant introduces the concept of the Maunder Minimum, emphasizing that it occurred later than the period in question and suggesting that historical observations of sunspots were inconsistent.
  • There is a suggestion that historical climate change may be viewed as a natural variation, raising questions about the sun's role in climate regulation.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the historical understanding of climate change and the role of solar activity, indicating that multiple competing perspectives remain without a clear consensus.

Contextual Notes

Limitations in the discussion include the reliance on historical observations that may not have been comprehensive, as well as the potential misalignment of climatic events with solar activity due to the timing of observations.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to historians, climatologists, and those studying the interplay between historical events and climate change.

wolram
Gold Member
Dearly Missed
Messages
4,411
Reaction score
551
http://eserver.org/history/aurora-of-1192.txt

Since the publication of Ladourie's Histoire de climat depuis
l'an mil in 1967, historians have generally accepted that the
European climate deteriorated after about the year 1000. They
have seen this deterioration as a cause of the Great Famine of
1315-1317, a factor the Black Death of 1347, and contributing to
the depression of the fifteenth century. There has been little
demand for a more precise chronology, and even less for a cause.
Since it was noted that there were few sun spots during the
period, and since someone coined the term, "The Era of the Quiet
Sun," historians have been more or less content to accept a lack
of solar storms somehow caused the deterioration of the medieval
European climate.

Is this an accurate work ?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Earth sciences news on Phys.org
Not really but the "best-before.." date of articles like this is only to the refuting discovery. However, in the abstact we see already a problem:

Since it was noted that there were few sun spots during the
period, and since someone coined the term, "The Era of the Quiet
Sun,"

The reason why nobody noticed sunspots was because they were not really discovered/registered, apart from some haphazard observations:

http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/IAGA2005/00507/IAGA2005-A-00507.pdf

The first one to observe the sun in a continuous way was the Dutch J.Fabricius. His book " de Maculis in Sole" (1611) is the first ever published on observation of sunspots.

The known period, practivally without sunspots, is know as the maunder minimum (1645 and 1715) with clear climatal clues:

http://www.stsci.edu/stsci/meetings/lisa3/beckmanj.html

The latest paper with a reconstruction of sunspot counts and climatal response is here:

http://cc.oulu.fi/~usoskin/personal/2004ja010964.pdf
 
Thanks Andre, you really are a mine of information, Ken Dodd would be proud :biggrin:
 
I am sure he would have welcomed you to his jam buttie mines in knotty Ash
any time. :biggrin:
The study of history and climate change seem to go hand in hand, the more one
reads the more it seems a natural variation, i wonder how many think that our
sun is not thermostaticaly controlled ?
 

Similar threads

News Is James Randi a skeptic or a Republican climate change denier?
  • · Replies 59 ·
2
Replies
59
Views
13K