Solar Cycle Forcing on Kurdistan-Iraq Temperature.

The energy transfer from the sun to the atmosphere is one of the primary drivers of the weather. The Earth climate is strongly affected by the amount of solar radiation emitted by the sun, which changes with solar activity. The search for cyclicity in the climate record can resolve some complexities of the atmospheric system. Periodicities in the sun spot number time series, annual, seasonal temperature time series have been studied visualising the data for 63 years spanning over the period 1948-2011. The temperature series is obtained from NCAR-NCEP reanalysis data centre. The sunspot number and temperature series, where subjected to spectral analysis by multitaper method to investigate the possible periodicities exist in all series. Several periodicities in the band 10.5-12.5 years are detected in annual and seasonal temperature where they are related to solar cycle. The temperature at Kurdistan is negatively correlated with the length of the solar cycle. The North Atlantic oscillation also affects the temperature of the region through 3.7 years periodicity.