There are wide-ranging predictions about the coming solar cycle peak in 2012 and its influence on Earth s warming climate and the $88 million Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment(SORCE) mission, launched in 2003 can help find answers, according to the chief scientist on the project.
Senior Research Associate Tom Woods of CU-Boulder s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics said the brightening of the sun as it approaches its next solar cycle maximum will have regional climatic impacts on Earth. While some scientists predict the next solar cycle expected to start in 2008 will be significantly weaker than the present one, others are forecasting an increase of up to 40 percent in the sun s activity, said Woods.