Long-term variations of the solar-geomagnetic correlation, total solar irradiance, and northern hemispheric temperature (1868-1997)

Time series for annual means of sunspot numbers, aa-indices of geomagnetic activity and annual numbers of 3-h time intervals with different values of aa-indices (aa ≤ 4 and aa ≥ 30) from 1868 to 1997 have been examined by the method of running-window cross-correlation analysis. It has been found that the solar-geomagnetic correlation varies over time. In particular, long-term variations of the 23-year running correlation appear to have a quasi periodicity of about 40-50 years, superposed on a linear trend, where the trend describes a general decrease of the 23-year running-window correlation between 1868 and the present. Long-term variations of the solar-geomagnetic correlation may result from the quasi-periodic fluctuations of the time lag of geomagnetic indices relative to sunspot numbers, superposed on an upward linear trend of time lag. Secular variations of the northern hemisphere land-air surface temperature anomalies and two solar indices that are potential proxy measures for the total solar irradiance (i.e., the length of the sunspot cycle and the Hoyt and Schatten (Hoyt, D.V., Schatten, K.V., 1993. Journal of Physical Research 98, 18,895-18,906.) composite index) have been compared with the long-term variations of the solar-geomagnetic correlation. The extremum points (points where the derivative vanishes to zero) of these variations are found to occur contemporaneously during the periods of low solar-geomagnetic correlation, suggesting, perhaps, that the long-term variations of solar-geomagnetic correlation are due to some long-term processes on the Sun and that they have a measurable effect on the Earth.