Solar activity linked with Earth's weather

BOULDER, Colo., July 16 (UPI) -- U.S. climate researchers say they have established a link between solar activity and La Nina- and El Nino-like events in the South Pacific Ocean.

The study, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, shows maximum solar activity and its aftermath impact Earth. Scientists said their findings might result in better predictions of temperature and precipitation patterns at certain times during the sun's cycle, which lasts approximately 11 years.

"We have fleshed out the effects of a new mechanism to understand what happens in the tropical Pacific when there is a maximum of solar activity," NCAR scientist Gerald Meehl, the study's lead author, said. "When the sun's output peaks, it has far-ranging and often subtle impacts on tropical precipitation and on weather systems around much of the world."

The research appears in the Journal of Climate.