Taking the (very) long view!
As described in my previous post (The Future of the Sun), in about 5 billion years time the Sun will swell up to at least 100 times its current diameter and this will make the surface of the Earth far too hot to sustain life.
What Sunrise might look like when the Sun is a red giant.
This post discusses other natural events which could spell the end of life on Earth, long before the Sun becomes a red giant.
Gradual increase in the Sun’s brightness
Astrophysicists predict that the Sun is gradually increasing in brightness by 1% every hundred million years. This increase in solar output will, over the long term, cause a gradual warming of the Earth’s surface.
This is what will happen:
- The increased energy from the Sun will cause a warming of the Earth’s surface.
- Because water evaporates more rapidly at higher temperatures, there will be an…
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My work background is in operational meteorology and in my career I have been involved in forecasting for everything from bananas to jumbo jets.I joined the Met Office 1974 as an observer at Glasgow Airport. After training as a forecaster, I worked as an Operational aviation forecaster at various defence sites and airports. In 1982, I moved to Glasgow Weather Centre as a forecaster and STV broadcaster till 1988. He then took up a post as Senior Forecaster London Weather Centre, then Senior Forecaster ITV where I qualified as a trainer in presentation techniques for the ITV Association. After being diagnosed with MS, he moved into management and became Head of London Weather Centre in 1997 followed by a period of front-line management for Southern England and Europe covering London and Cardiff Weather Centres and the Met Offices on defence stations from Akrotiri in Cyprus to St Mawgan in Cornwall. He took up the post of Met Office Chief Advisor for Scotland & Northern Ireland in March 2008 and moved to Edinburgh. I retired in September 2014. My one claim to fame is once performed a comedy sketch on TV with Manuel (Andrew Sachs) from Fawlty Towers in support of Comic Relief.
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