<div><a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100121_globalstats.html">http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100121_globalstats.html</a></div>
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<li>NCDC scientists also noted the average temperature for the decade (2000-09), 57.9 degrees F, was the warmest on record surpassing the 1990-99 average of 57.7 degrees F. value. </li></div>
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<div><a href="http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum.htm">http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum.htm</a></div>
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<div>Despite the deep solar minimum occurring during the past few years, "<font face="Verdana" size="2">the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century," according to David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center, the 2000-09 average global temperature was higher, according to NOAA, than 1990-09.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Verdana" size="2">This suggests that solar forcing is <strong><em>not</em></strong> the cause of the warming trend of the past few decades, as has been concluded by the consensus among climate scientists, given the recent 12 year low in solar irradiance, while global temperatures remain well above the 20th century average.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Verdana" size="2">From NASA website above:</font></div>
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<div><font face="Verdana" size="2"><font size="2"><font face="Verdana"><strong>A 12-year low in solar "irradiance": </strong>Careful measurements by several NASA spacecraft show that the sun's brightness has dropped by 0.02% at visible wavelengths and 6% at extreme UV wavelengths since the solar minimum of 1996. The changes so far are not enough to reverse the course of global warming, but there are some other significant side-effects: Earth's upper atmosphere is heated less by the sun and it is therefore less "puffed up." Satellites in low Earth orbit experience less atmospheric drag, extending their operational lifetimes. </font></font></font></div>
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<div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div>