The DOI matches its Crossref record; 292 of the 297 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The faint young Sun problem
Open accessAbstract
For more than four decades, scientists have been trying to find an answer to one of the most fundamental questions in paleoclimatology, the “faint young Sun problem.” For the early Earth, models of stellar evolution predict a solar energy input to the climate system that is about 25% lower than today. This would result in a completely frozen world over the first 2 billion years in the history of our planet if all other parameters controlling Earth's climate had been the same. Yet there is ample evidence for the presence of liquid surface water and even life in the Archean (3.8 to 2.5 billion years before present), so some effect (or effects) must have been compensating for the faint young Sun. A wide range of possible solutions have been suggested and explored during the last four decades, with most studies focusing on higher concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, or ammonia. All of these solutions present considerable difficulties, however, so the faint young Sun problem cannot be regarded as solved. Here I review research on the subject, including the latest suggestions for solutions of the faint young Sun problem and recent geochemical constraints on the composition of Earth's early atmosphere. Furthermore, I will outline the most promising directions for future research. In particular I would argue that both improved geochemical constraints on the state of the Archean climate system and numerical experiments with state‐of‐the‐art climate models are required to finally assess what kept the oceans on the Archean Earth from freezing over completely.
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“liquid water was already present at the surface during the Hadean (4.56 Ga to ≈ 4.0 Ga 1 ) and Archean eons ( ≈ 4.0 Ga to 2.4 Ga)”
From The young Sun's XUV-activity as a constraint for lower CO2-limits in the Earth's Archean atmosphere (2021) · cites this paper as Feulner, 2012
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“Liquid water under a fainter Sun likely implies more abundant greenhouse gases than today (14, 15).”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [15]
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“Solar evolution models show that the Sun was 25 to 30% fainter at 4 Ga ago (12, 13, 15).”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [15]
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5 of the 297 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
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Catling, D. C., & Zahnle, K. J. (2020) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aax1420 · Cited by 568
“Solar evolution models show that the Sun was 25 to 30% fainter at 4 Ga ago (12, 13, 15).”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Feulner, G.
- Affiliations
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Feulner, Georg
- ORCID
- Feulner, Georg
- Venue
- Reviews of Geophysics
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2012-05-25
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 0096-1043 (ISSN-L)
- 8755-1209
- 1944-9208
- OpenAlex
- W2092626416
- Cited by
- 338
- References
- 297
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 14.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Reviews of Geophysics (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- Publication Database PIK (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Stonehill College
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution
- Keywords
- early Earth atmosphere, greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, paleoclimate, climate models
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