Sun shunned - Climate Change: The Facts - page 43

annual-mean temperatures in China, 35 out of 36 models incorrectly simulated a cooler
climate than present. 13
IPCC authors, and the computer models on which they rely, have also arbitrarily and
incorrectly preferred the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos (PMOD)
measurement of total solar irradiance (as exemplified in Claus Fröhlich's 2009 paper) to
two independent and arguably better results deduced by the Royal Meteorological Institute
of Belgium (RMIB) (Sabri Mekaoui and Steven deWitte, 2008) and the Active Cavity
Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM) (Nicola Scafetta and Richard Willson, 2014)
groups. 14 A 2013 paper by Ali BenMoussa et al. recently raised the important question
of accuracy in the calibration of satellite solar instruments, most of which are strongly
affected by both in-orbit light and charged-particle radiation exposure and orbital decay. 15
These authors concluded that the better quality control of the RMIB data were preferable
to the rather subjective adjustments in the PMOD data—adjustments that were personally
specified by Fröhlich, the Principal Investigator of the PMOD instrument. Scafetta and
Willson in their 2014 paper provided detailed accounts on the PMOD data adjustment
procedure and independently confirm the lower quality of the PMOD data. 16
Furthermore, IPCC authors have also failed to disclose or to explain that the
measurement of total solar irradiance is confounded by our current inability to determine
itsabsolutevalue. 17 Itissurelyimportanttoknowwhetherthemeanvalueis1360,1361or
1365 Wm -2 because without knowing how the mean climatic state is determined it would
beimpossibletoconfirmhowtheactualclimatesystemisactuallychanging.Thescientific
importance of this indeterminac y 18 is also clear if one considers that, according to the
IPCC's 2013 Fifth Assessment Report , the entire influence of humans on the climate since
1750 is a mere 2.3 Wm-2. 19
The 2013 paper by Soon and Legates, published before the IPCC's paper cut-off
deadline, shows that a reconstructed history of solar irradiance can explain the changes
in the Equator-to-Arctic surface temperature gradient from 1850-2012. 20 Scientifically,
this result is important for understanding climate dynamics because the Equator-to-Arctic
temperature gradient has long been suspected as a key driver of the earth's climate. 21 The
IPCC, which purports to review all relevant scientific literature, makes no mention of this
important result.
Likewise, it is disturbing that the IPCC has promoted the reconstructed history of total
solar irradiance by Steinhilber (2009, 2012) as the best possible result. 22 The Steinhilber
reconstruction hinges on very weak statistical links (or lack thereof) between the radial
magnetic field variable, B r , and total solar irradiance published by Fröhlich, a co-author
of Steinhilber in 2009. 23 Strictly speaking, the relationship between these two variables