Sunspots have also been examined to determine if a link is present between solar irradiance and hurricanes. The research builds on previous work in the study between sunspots and hurricanes and focuses on different variables during a hurricane season and correlating those variables to sunspots. It is found that the entire sunspot cycle does not play a major role in hurricane activity. A correlation of only 0.0235 between number of storms and sunspot activity was found
Our findings show a direct correlation between sunspot number and the amount of solar irradiance. Furthermore, a direct correlation exists between sunspot number and solar proton flux. Our hypothesis proposed that increased solar irradiance causes heating in the Earth's upper atmosphere resulting in increased vertical wind shear thus decreasing tropical cyclone development. While this idea has been supported in other studies, we found no significant statistical correlations.