Oral Presentations
Presentation Type
Presentation
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Ashley Ballantyne
Faculty Mentor’s Department
W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation
Abstract / Artist's Statement
While increasing greenhouse gases are causing an increase in global temperatures and precipitation, there is considerable interannual variability in global and regional climate patterns that is not fully understood. This research will be carried out by reading papers on this topic and creating my own graphs with El Nino, sunspot cycles, global climate, reginal climate, and snowpack in Western Montana. The winter of 2023-2024 has been dominated by unusually warm temperatures and a significantly smaller snowpack. A common explanation for these warmer and dryer winters is El Nino events. This year we are experiencing a strong El Nino event along with the sun being at the peak of its 12-year sunspot cycle. I am looking for a pattern between El Nino, sunspot cycles and how they affect global climate and regional climate. We know there is no correlation between sunspot cycles and El Nino but there could be a pattern in global and regional climate from the effects of sunspot cycles and El Nino. Working with people in the Montana Climate Office, I hope to create models to show these effects. Taking past El Nino events that match up with similar levels of sunspots and see if there are similar reginal and global temperatures. This research will hopefully help describe the effects of El Nino combined with sunspot cycles on the globe and Western Montana. Climate change has raised global temperatures and I hope to see if climate change has made the effects of El Nino and sunspot cycles change over time. This will hopefully explain this year’s warmer than normal temperatures and reduced snowpack.
Category
Physical Sciences
Effect of El Nino and Sunspot Cycles on Global and Reginal Climate
UC 326
While increasing greenhouse gases are causing an increase in global temperatures and precipitation, there is considerable interannual variability in global and regional climate patterns that is not fully understood. This research will be carried out by reading papers on this topic and creating my own graphs with El Nino, sunspot cycles, global climate, reginal climate, and snowpack in Western Montana. The winter of 2023-2024 has been dominated by unusually warm temperatures and a significantly smaller snowpack. A common explanation for these warmer and dryer winters is El Nino events. This year we are experiencing a strong El Nino event along with the sun being at the peak of its 12-year sunspot cycle. I am looking for a pattern between El Nino, sunspot cycles and how they affect global climate and regional climate. We know there is no correlation between sunspot cycles and El Nino but there could be a pattern in global and regional climate from the effects of sunspot cycles and El Nino. Working with people in the Montana Climate Office, I hope to create models to show these effects. Taking past El Nino events that match up with similar levels of sunspots and see if there are similar reginal and global temperatures. This research will hopefully help describe the effects of El Nino combined with sunspot cycles on the globe and Western Montana. Climate change has raised global temperatures and I hope to see if climate change has made the effects of El Nino and sunspot cycles change over time. This will hopefully explain this year’s warmer than normal temperatures and reduced snowpack.