Published: April 20, 1982
A relatively tiny but persistent decrease in the amount of solar energy reaching the earth’s surface in 1980 and 1981 may have helped cause this year’s unusually severe winter, a senior scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology suggested yesterday.
A device aboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s orbiting Solar Maximum Mission satellite, launched in February 1980, found that over an 18-month period ended in August 1981, the average amount of energy from the sun decreased by one-tenth of 1 percent, according to Dr. Richard C. Willson, a physicist who designed and coordinated the experiment.
SCIENCE WATCH – Theory on Harsh Winter – NYTimes.com
NASA scientists are much smarter now, and know that cold winters are caused by an overheated Arctic.