The Hockey Schtick:
A paper published today in Advances in Space Research finds changes in solar activity during 11 year solar cycles exert control over interannual changes in atmospheric water vapor. In turn, “Water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas. It plays a major role in the dynamics of atmospheric circulation, radiation exchange within the atmosphere, and climate variability. Knowledge of the distribution of water vapor is important for understanding climate change and global warming.”
The authors find precipitable water vapor shows cyclic variations of 10-11 years which are inversely correlated with the ~11 year solar cycles. Although the authors say the mechanism is unknown, perhaps there is some tie to the Svensmark theory of cosmoclimatology, which posits increased clouds [water vapor] result during periods of low solar activity, a similar inverse correlation.
The paper potentially adds to hundreds of other peer-reviewed papers describing solar amplification mechanisms, whereby tiny 0.1% changes in solar activity during solar cycles are amplified to produce large scale effects on climate, including via effects on natural atmospheric and ocean oscillations such as the Southern Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, Scandinavian Pattern,Quasi Biennial Oscillation (QBO), Indian Summer Monsoon, El Nino Southern Oscillation [ENSO], Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Madden-Julian Oscillation, and others. Other amplification mechanisms include via ozone and sunshine hours/clouds.
