The Impact of Solar Irradiance on the Maunder Minimum Climate

Abstract

We estimate an average surface Northern Hemisphere temperature anomaly of around -0.3°C for the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715) using the average total solar irradiance. As various cooling effects were neglected this estimate is an upper limit and a deeper anomaly may be found. The total solar irradiance is obtained from the solar rotation rate reconstructed using observations of sunspots recorded at the Observatoire de Paris from 1660 to 1719, and is found to be lower than at present by 0.1% to 0.43%.