Nebraska Academy of Sciences
Date of this Version
1979
Document Type
Article
Abstract
The variation of atmospheric radiocarbon concentration over the past 8,000 years is generally well explained in terms of the modulation of radiocarbon production by the Earth's magnetic field. The reconstruction of this variation as based upon the known fluctuation of the Earth's field, however, is slightly out of phase with and of a smaller amplitude than the empirically derived curve.
Correlations between solar magnetic activity and climatic trends are well established over a period of a few hundred years. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the solar magnetic field modulates the production of radiocarbon in the same manner as does that of the Earth. By assuming that the correlation between solar activity and climate stems from some fundamental process, climatological information can be used to derive the behavior of the solar field over an extended period of time. The solar field thus established, along with knowledge of the Earth's field, yields a curve of radiocarbon concentration which is in much better agreement with the empirical curve.
Comments
Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences- Volume VII, 1979. Copyright © 1979 Haack and McGinnis