Comparing the impact of solar activities on rainfall under varying climates during the solar cycle 24

Abstract

Abstract A ten-year (2009 – 2018) data sets of rainfall and sunspot numbers obtained from the Nigerian Meteorological (NIMET) agency and Sunspot Index and Long term Solar Observations (SILSO) respectively were studied using correlation and trend analysis and their results were compared. Variations in annual and monthly rainfall in Port Harcourt and Sokoto stations during solar cycle 24 were observed. The results of the correlation between rainfall (RF) and sunspot numbers (SSN) showed that all the months in Sokoto correlated negatively as expected while half of the months in Port Harcourt were negatively correlated. Again, monthly RF/SSN correlation results in Sokoto were high except in March, August, and December with -0.1827, -0.1338, and -0.0.1653 respectively, whereas only January, March, April, and May in Port Harcourt had high correlations with -0.5309, 0.5773, -0.5499, and -0.6710. While trend analysis of SSN and RF in Sokoto showed a coincidence in the peaks of Sunspot numbers and rainfall in 2014, that between SSN and RF in Port Harcourt showed that RF peaked 3 years after SSN peak. The results suggest a possible effect of solar activity on climate change and also the impact of aerosols and atmospheric air contaminations in the solar activity – rainfall relationship.