BB, when it comes to astronomy, I might be what is called a "talented amateur." I have been interested in the subject since I was eight years old, have read widely on the subject, and have taken a number of courses at the University of Washington. I have also logged in some observatory time.

Granted, I don't have the degrees that you say you have, but I have known of, say, anatomy professors who couldn't find their own butts with both hands and an anatomy chart.

Inaccurate information is still inaccurate, even if the promulgator of that information has a whole string of degrees.

In my post above, I also talked about the sun's long term cycles, not just the 11-year sunspot cycle. And I am also fully aware of the work done on temperatures and atmospheric content by studying such things as tree rings and core samples taken from glaciers and ice sheets. So there is considerable information that can be at least inferred about solar radiation that goes back a long way before 1978.

Don Firth