Research Highlights
November 2007
Chuck Long Co-author on "Hot" Paper about Solar Brightening
Congratulations to FCSD's Chuck Long and co-authors for writing a "hot" paper, reported recently by Essential Science Indicators (ESI). According to ESI, a hot paper represents a key paper in a specific field and reflects rapid and significant numbers of citations since its publication. Dr. Long's article, "From dimming to brightening: Decadal changes in solar radiation at the Earth's surface," appeared in the May 6, 2005, issue of Science. According to the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and as reported in ESI, the article has been cited 72 times as of October 3, 2007.
The article discusses evidence showing a reversal in the "dimming" trend (a decreasing trend in downwelling solar energy reaching the Earth's surface) over three decades. Although the causes of these trends are not known, the authors do show that the dimming trend may have acted to somewhat mask the projected global greenhouse warming trend. With the current brightening trend, the projected greenhouse-warming signal might become more apparent.
The ISI uses a special filter to detect hot papers. This involves looking at recently published papers and unusual citation activity in a current period. A list of more than 14,000 journals is maintained by the ISI from which the ESI compiles science performance statistics and science trends data. Both the ISI and ESI are owned and funded through the Thomson Corporation, a leading provider of integrated information-based solutions to the scientific, academic, and government community.
Journal Reference: Wild, M., H. Gilgen, A. Roesch, A. Ohmura, C. N. Long, E. G. Dutton, B. Forgan, A. Kallis, V. Russak, and A. Tsvetkov, (2005): From dimming to brightening: Decadal changes in solar radiation at the Earth's surface, Science, 308, Issue 5723, 847-850, [DOI:10.1126/science.1103215].