Swedish researchers have found a way to reconstruct solar activity during the last ice age, and now are able to show how regional climate is influenced by the sun.

To create this reconstruction, researchers analyzed trace elements in ice cores in Greenland and Cave formation from China.

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According to researchers, Sweden was covered in a thick ice sheet that stretched down to northern Germany during the last glacial period.

Sea levels were more than 100 meters lower that they are today because the sea was frozen in an extensive ice cap, they added.

Despite this, their new study shows that the sun's variations influenced the climate similarly regardless of extreme weathers like the Ice Age.

Raimund Muscheler from Lund University said that they found an unexpected link between solar activity and climate change.

It shows that solar activity is nothing new and solar activity can influence the climate in a regional level, he explained.

Understanding these process can help scientist give a better forecast on climates in certain regions, he added.

Researchers admit that the sun's impact on the climate is a matter of current because of the global warming the world is experiencing in the past 15 years.

They found out that the indirect effect of solar energy on Earth's atmospheric circulation is more alarming than the direct effects of solar energy.

Muscheler said that reduced solar activity could result to colder winters in Northern Europe because of the effect of sun's UV radiation on the Earth's atmospheric circulation.

He also found out that this same process could lead to warmer winters in Greenland, greater snowfall and more storms.

The study also shows that the various solar processes still need to be included in climate models in order to predict future global and regional climate change, he explained

Researchers believe that their reconstruction of solar activity could provide better opportunities to predict future climate conditions.