Is the sun brighter?

[Chardok]

Maybe it's because I'm older, but when the sun is out lately and it's a nice, cloudless day, I can't stand it! I dunno....it just seems noticably brighter to the point where I have to squint constantly. Scientific reason? should it be noticably brighter? Is it actually? Or is it just me?

[LadyTevar]

It's your eyes aging

[Admiral Valdemar]

It's actually at the lowest point of activity in the 11 year cycle, so it should be duller, if anything. Though I'm probably oversimplyfying, especially given it takes so long for light to leave the core.

[Instant Sunrise]

The Sun's brightness has increasing by .05% every 10 years.[1] But this is so small it isn't noticable on human scales, and it is likely part of a long term trend.

We are also in the solar minimum right now, which means that there is very little sunspot activity, and there are only two sunspot gropus visible on the sun near the edge of the disk.[2] Which means that the sun isn't covered in dark spots at the moment.

Neither of those should be enough to be noticably brighter. It's just you.

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1: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/s ... 30320.html
2: http://spaceweather.com/

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Maybe it's because I'm older, but when the sun is out lately and it's a nice, cloudless day, I can't stand it! I dunno....it just seems noticably brighter to the point where I have to squint constantly. Scientific reason? should it be noticably brighter? Is it actually? Or is it just me?

It's just you, and your aging eyes. The dynamic range of light your eyes will respond to is gradually shrinking. The minimum light level you need to see is gradually increasing, and the cutoff point at which your retinas go into saturation and begin demanding that you stop abusing them with bright light is lowering. As a result, while the Sun's overall intensity remains the same(*) what goes up is your discomfort at experiencing it.

(*) - While the sun is gradually getting hotter and brighter, this process will take a billion years before it gets hot and bright enough to render life on Earth completely impossible.

To put that in context, assume that the Sun has to be four times brighter here (to match the intensity of sunlight falling on Venus now. The actual value needed to dry out the oceans and turn Earth into a Venusian hellhole is actually lower, but this will do for starters.) When you divide 400% by a billion years, you find that average solar intensity should only increase by 1/2,500,000th of a percent per year or less. This is nowhere near significant enough a change for you to notice, even if you happened to live for the next century in perfect health.

For that matter, that overall change in solar intensity is swamped by short-term changes in solar intensity resulting from the Sun's eleven year cycle (which itself seems to be part of a much longer cycle, which produced such things as the Little Ice Age of the late 17th century.) And even then the changes in solar brightness . . . while significant enough to induce swings in Earth's climate are still too small for your eyes to pick up on.

[His Divine Shadow]

Maybe it's because I'm older, but when the sun is out lately and it's a nice, cloudless day, I can't stand it! I dunno....it just seems noticably brighter to the point where I have to squint constantly. Scientific reason? should it be noticably brighter? Is it actually? Or is it just me?

Buy some sunglasses, I did. However they where too small, need 55mm not 52mm lenses. Don't buy glasses online unless you've tried themm first.

This has nothing at all todo with the topic, I'm just a bit ticked. They are nice glasses though, American Optical aviators.

[Chardok]

Excellent reads, all. I appreciate all of your responses! ...Guess I'm just an old fogey *sigh*

[Gil Hamilton]

It also could be atmospheric. The light quality and quality are significantly different on even a slightly over cast day, particularly if it setting up to rain. On a bright sunny day, particularly after it has rained, you'll notice that the light outside is alot brighter, because the atmosphere is relatively clean of particles. It also matters when you go out. At noon, the sunlight has alot less atmosphere to go through, so it hasn't been as diffused as much and thus significantly harsher on the eyes. Around 2 or 3, depending on the time of year, the light quality becomes more diffused and thus won't kick your eye's ass so much.

[TrailerParkJawa]

Excellent reads, all. I appreciate all of your responses! ...Guess I'm just an old fogey *sigh*

My dad said the same thing back in the late 80's or early 90's. He just felt the sun was hotter and brighter. At the time we had a couple of really hot, dry years so that is what it seemed like but I suspect the others are right. His eyes were gettting older. (he was in his mid 40's).