In May 2000, during the planetary alignment I thought about the impact of this on solar tides (Photosphere tides etc.). After calculating the contributions from each planet (inverse square for height, inverse cube for volume) I was impressed by the dominance of Jupiter’s effect and its orbital frequency, although orbital frequency when compared with solar rotation may complicate the gravitational coupling. The idea that Jupiter’s 11 year orbital cycle was somehow phase-locked with some mass-vibration in the sun would not leave me alone. Jupiter was phase-locked with an internal mass-vibration system of frequency 11 years producing an 11 year cycle of sunpot activity. This effect is complicated by contribution from Mercury to tidal volume . The idea was published in New Scientist by means of this letter:

While the work of Mausumi Dikpati suggests that meridional flows in the sun’s convective layer may allow us to forecast sunspot activity (6 March, p 38), other forces may also be at work. In particular, the giant planets in the solar system may play a role through the gravitational pull they exert on the massive amount of fluid flowing in the outer layer of the sun.

Curiously, this gravitational force can be expressed as a Fourier series whose most important terms have interesting periodicities: one of these coincides with the 11-year cycle of the sunspots. What we may be seeing, therefore, is the direct influence of planetary tidal forces and their effects on the stability of the magnetic loops created in the meridional flows in the sun’s convective layer. These forces could be a major factor in the cycle of magnetic loops believed to create the sunspots.

Jupiter is the largest contributor to the solar plasma tides. It may eventually transpire that its influence contributes to our climate.

Jupiter’s Solar Tides