Solar Activities over the Rainfall Pattern and Temperature Ranges in Nigeria

Abstract

The impact of Sunspots Number (SSN)andTotal Solar Irradiance(TSI) on temperature and rainfall in Nigeria from 1970 to 2014, covering four synoptic stations: PortHarcourt (PH) (4.51⁰N, 7.10⁰E), Enugu (ENU) (6.28⁰N, 7.33⁰E), Ilorin (IRN) (8.29⁰E, 4.35⁰E) and Sokoto (SKT) (13.01⁰N, 5.15⁰E) are here presented. The annual relationship between the climatic parameters is compared with the solar parameters graphically using annual mean of both variables. A non -parametric statistical correlation was used to delineate the degree of dependence of the climatic parameters on the solar parameter. The result obtained from the graphical comparison strongly indicates that temperature increases with increased in solar activities and vice versa. It is found that precipitation exhibits significant increase with decreasing solar activity. The correlation results signify a positive correlation between solar activities and temperature and an inverse correlation between solar activity and precipitation. From the analysis, we infer that, despite human activities, solar activities play important roles in climate change observed in Nigeria this effect should not be ignored in analyzing the pattern of temperature and temperature in Nigeria.