Sun Makes History: First Spotless Month in a Century [possible mini-ice age]

Daily Tech ^ | September 1, 2008 8:11 AM | Michael Asher

[SunkenCiv]

Good, but where’s your up parka? /rimshot

[CholeraJoe]

Who needs a parka if the temperature goes up?

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Much as I hate the cold

I'm in Florida, so a little cooling will be fine!

[cogitator]

What's Wrong with the Sun? (Nothing)

"Another way to examine the length and depth of a solar minimum is by counting spotless days. A "spotless day" is a day with no sunspots. Spotless days never happen during Solar Max but they are the "meat and potatoes" of solar minima.

Adding up every daily blank sun for the past three years, we find that the current solar minimum has had 362 spotless days (as of June 30, 2008). Compare that value to the total spotless days of the previous ten solar minima: 309, 273, 272, 227, 446, 269, 568, 534, ~1019 and ~931. The current count of 362 spotless days is not even close to the longest."

Examine the graphic below from the article comparing this minimum to the 1933 minimum.

Orange bars represent the number of spotless days per month. The ongoing solar minimum needs to accumulate another 206 spotless days before it matches the duration of the 1933 minimum, which is considered unremarkable by solar historians.

[fella]

And today here in North Texas it is unusually cool for the first part of September. How about where your at?

[steelyourfaith]





Beam me to Planet Gore !


[PistolPaknMama]

More frantic action is called for by the global warming scammers

Most likely the screaming greenies will claim that warming on earth made the sunspots disappear.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, that’ll happen. I can’t remember if I’ve had that experience with double topics, but I’ve had a post go out doubly, plenty of times, most embarrassing when it’s to one of the ping lists. And each time I swear I don’t know how it happens. Somehow I or my browser or something makes that button go down twice. :’)

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

Anthropogenic Solar Cooling?

ASC anyone?

[DBCJR]

Yes, Anthropogenic Solar Cooling, man made-up solar cooling, like Goregenic Global Warming or Goregenic Internet Origins.

[DBCJR]

Maybe I should say anthrodelusional.

[palmer]

Orange bars represent the number of spotless days per month. The ongoing solar minimum needs to accumulate another 206 spotless days before it matches the duration of the 1933 minimum, which is considered unremarkable by solar historians.

Since you made your "unremarkable" remark, the sun has accumulated over 300 spotless days (out of 365 or so). It is remarkable now wouldn't you say? There's a theory that blames the lack of spots on solar system center of gravity changes (Jupiter's orbit is 11 years like the normal SS cycle). The other planets would have lesser effects, but I suppose they could enhance each other some way. But what is the effect back on earth?

My unpublished theory is that the solar minimum causes enhancements of nonlinearities in the magnetosphere (explained here http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16797882) which in turn causes large scale gravity waves (see here http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V3S-4019K4R-RG&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1009542625&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=c22eee69b245f3f576b0458ac5d8aceb)

The large scale gravity waves interact on a small scale with the weather-caused gravity waves to cause even more weather extremes (for example Gravity Waves Make Tornados[sic]) which is often cooling due to concentration of water vapor. Diffuse water vapor is warming, but concentrated water vapor is more neutral (even with warming) and often it is cooling (e.g. subsidence around hurricanes).

I could be wrong, the theory is incomplete and other solar factors could have greater influences.

[cogitator]

Since you made your "unremarkable" remark, the sun has accumulated over 300 spotless days (out of 365 or so). It is remarkable now wouldn't you say?

It's getting there. I guess I'd have to consider myself pretty lucky (along with the other billions of people living on Earth) to witness the beginning of a solar regime shift -- if that's what is happening. I hate to say something so trite as "we'll probably know in a year", but I think we're going to know a lot more in a year. I'm also REAL curious about what's going to happen in the Pacific Ocean over the next 8-10 months.

Did you see this? (I suspect you have.)

Are sunspots disappearing?

It's nice of you to share your theory, by the way, but my only comment would be that I think you'll have a lot of work to do to support it. That doesn't mean it's wrong; good luck.

[cogitator]

Since you made your "unremarkable" remark, the sun has accumulated over 300 spotless days (out of 365 or so). It is remarkable now wouldn't you say?

It's getting there. I guess I'd have to consider myself pretty lucky (along with the other billions of people living on Earth) to witness the beginning of a solar regime shift -- if that's what is happening. I hate to say something so trite as "we'll probably know in a year", but I think we're going to know a lot more in a year. I'm also REAL curious about what's going to happen in the Pacific Ocean over the next 8-10 months.

Did you see this? (I suspect you have.)

Are sunspots disappearing?

It's nice of you to share your theory, by the way, but my only comment would be that I think you'll have a lot of work to do to support it. That doesn't mean it's wrong; good luck.