Posted on 06/14/2010 7:43:23 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The sun's temper ebbs and flows on what scientists had thought was a pretty predictable cycle, but lately our closest star has been acting up.
Typically, a few stormy years would knock out a satellite or two and maybe trip a power grid on Earth. Then a few years of quiet, and then back to the bad behavior. But an extremely long stretch of low activity in recent years has scientists baffled and scrambling for better forecasting models.
An expected minimum of solar activity, between 2008 and 2009, was unusually deep. And while the sun would normally ramp up activity by now, heading into its next cycle, the sun may be on the verge of a weak solar cycle instead, astronomers said at the 216th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Miami last month.
"We're witnessing something unlike anything we've seen in 100 years," said David Hathaway of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The sun's constant interaction with Earth makes it important for solar physicists to keep track of solar activity. Stormy periods can force special safety precautions by satellite operators and power grid managers, and astronauts can be put at risk from bursts of radiation spat out by solar storm. Scientists need to more reliably predict what's in store.
At the conference, four solar physicists presented four very different methods of measuring and tracking solar cycles.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
PING
Bush’s Fault!
I thought sun spots were supposed to be storming back by now. Anybody the latest counts?
Maybe we are heading into a new iceage?
It’s going to be cold...I mean really cold....I mean freeze-the-balls-off-a-brass monkey cold.....for a long time.
Ra is working up to something.
I'm getting cheated out of one.
Old white guys that know morse code hit hardest.
/johnny
I think the sun is heating up and the earth is leaking crude oil. This could get really dangerous! A spark from the sun could set the sea on fire and the earth could go KABOOM!
“Old white guys that know morse code hit hardest.”
ROTFLMBO!!!
Why do they think the Sun’s behavior is strange? Just because they have never seen it before?
The differential equations that describe the Sun’s behavior are non-linear, even more non-linear than those which describe the earth’s atmosphere.
The non-linearity make long term prediction NOT POSSIBLE. One can make short term preditions, and describe medium long term trends.
Edward Lorenz wrote a paper in the 1960s that described the effect of nonlinearity on the ability to predict. And that is why “Glowball Warming” is bollocks.
That was a really good movie....and it gave me the *serious* creeps....8-o
Leave them alone, they are hatching up a “strange sun behavior” tax. They just need to call it a crisis.
Check out www.spaceweather.com for the latest solar activity.
Me too! Totally creeped me out, yet, always watch it when its on. When the bottom of the bed revealed what EE was, I truly got a chill up my spine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.