Sun may soon have four poles, say researchers (Sunspot activity resembles the Maunder Minimum.)

The Asahi Shimbun ^ | April 20, 2012 | SEIJI TANAKA

[neverdem]

The sun may be entering a period of reduced activity that could result in lower temperatures on Earth, according to Japanese researchers.

Officials of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the Riken research foundation said on April 19 that the activity of sunspots appeared to resemble a 70-year period in the 17th century in which London’s Thames froze over and cherry blossoms bloomed later than usual in Kyoto.

In that era, known as the Maunder Minimum, temperatures are estimated to have been about 2.5 degrees lower than in the second half of the 20th century.

The Japanese study found that the trend of current sunspot activity is similar to records from that period.

The researchers also found signs of unusual magnetic changes in the sun. Normally, the sun’s magnetic field flips about once every 11 years. In 2001, the sun’s magnetic north pole, which was in the northern hemisphere, flipped to the south.

While scientists had predicted that the next flip would begin from May 2013, the solar observation satellite Hinode found that the north pole of the sun had started flipping about a year earlier than expected. There was no noticeable change in the south pole.

If that trend continues, the north pole could complete its flip in May 2012 but create a four-pole magnetic structure in the sun, with two new poles created in the vicinity of the equator of our closest star.

[aruanan]

Note in the replies that of the poor English cleric near the top.

[pricilla]

Czcibor,Czeslaw,Dariusz & Grzegorz???

[the invisib1e hand]

How bad can it be?

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Keep your tires inflated - that should ward off any ill effects.

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[KoRn]

/mark

[P.O.E.]

[Dartman]

Czcibor,Czeslaw,Dariusz & Grzegorz???

Those darned Poles. Didn’t they join the Kyoto Accord thingamabob?

[GOPJ]

Don’t forget to get a tune-up too!

[CrazyIvan]

Quad polar dissorder?

[Clara Lou]

Well, then, thank goodness for global warming, eh?

[cripplecreek]

The sun is a tangled magnetic mass of multiple poles.

[PapaBear3625]

Solar cycle 24 has definitely been doing odd things. It’s looking more and more like it’s going to be a shallow cycle. Not Maunder minimum (where sunspot activity ceased for decades), but maybe a Dalton-type Minimum.

[Calusa]

cherry blossoms bloomed later than usual in Kyoto.

four-pole magnetic structureWhy not n+1 poles

an infinite number of poles

[struggle]

>>The sun is a tangled magnetic mass of multiple poles.

Just like Warsaw.

[cripplecreek]

You’ll find a mass of poles at any Catholic church in Warsaw.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Who do these clowns think they are?

The scientific consensus is that CO₂ heats the earth, not the sun.

Get with the program, you idiots.

[mikrofon]

%%
It’s just another mimic Maunder
Pole moves on the Sun there
Cause our rain & thunder
So we don’t have to wonder,
It’s just another mimic Maunder...
%%

[hal ogen]

If nobama had a sun, it would look like this.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Bush’s fault.

[onedoug]

Isn’t 3rd from the left Thaddeus Kosciuzsko?

[Aunt Polgara]

We're all gonna DIE!!!

[married21]

That’s funny. Gonna show it to Mr. Married21.

[COBOL2Java]

Officials of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the Riken research foundation said on April 19 that the activity of sunspots appeared to resemble a 70-year period in the 17th century in which London’s Thames froze over and cherry blossoms bloomed later than usual in Kyoto.

[married21]

3rd from the left is Thaddeus Kosciuzsko?

I thought it was Michael Jackson.

[tumblindice]

They landed at night.

Did you know the Sun burns more energy in one second than mankind has spent since the first democaveman found fire in a lightning-struck tree and took it back to his fellow hominids?
I either read that somewhere, or just made it up.

[Ditter]

LOL! Where did you find that algore cartoon, it is hilarious!

[Terry Mross]

No, it’s just the opposite. We need to lower the tire pressure and everyone buy an SUV. We need some warmin’ goin’ on.

[COBOL2Java]

Did a search on “algore frozen”. :-)

[aruanan]

Well, I can't get that part with the reader comment to load. The guy says that solar activity doesn't account for warming. I wanted to respond with, "For the claim that the sun can't account for warming: "What is the difference between average daytime and nighttime temperatures during any particular season and similar meteorological conditions and what is the causal factor most responsible for making that difference?"

Okay, so we can posit the sun as being responsible for over 30 degree shifts of temperature in the course of 24 hours (or 90 degrees over the course of a Martian day) but we can't posit that changes in solar output could be responsible for changes of fractions of a degree up or down in global temperature averages over the course of a century? One degree F over the course of about a century (1880 to 1998) is about 3% of the change in temperature that is normally seen over the course of a day. And when we see the same phenomenon occurring on several different planets, the cause on all isn't going to be due to unique conditions on one.

[Don Corleone]

“Al Gore...Mr Al Gore...please pick up the white courtesy phone.”

[Semper911]

Shrinkage?

[Ditter]

I want to send it to all the greenies on my email list. Their hero has fallen.

[crghill]

Wish it were a Sunday

[SaraJohnson]

The sun is a tangled magnetic mass of multiple poles.

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So are they lying in this article about a change in a normal pattern of two poles on the sun to four and this claim is not real? ‘Splain it to me, please.

[The Duke]

The sun may be entering a period of reduced activity that could result in lower temperatures on Earth,...

This has that George W. Bush's fingerprints all over it!!!

[SERKIT]

This just in:
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (Dumb-TX) wants to know which of the 4 poles the American flag is mounted on, placed there by NASA astronauts several years ago.

[tbw2]

Is the sun cooler during a shallow cycle?

[cripplecreek]

The sun doesn't rotate as a solid mass meaning that its magnetic fields are constantly shifting, shearing, twisting and breaking. It has a general north south orientation but not at all like we see in the earth.



The solar reversals don't appear to be at all uncommon and happen far more often than the 300,000 year reversals of the earth's magnetic field.

[SaraJohnson]

Thank you.

[P.O.E.]

Paderewski, Chopin, Kociuzsko, & Pope John Paul II

[libertarian27]

Quick! Burn a Tire.

[SunkenCiv]

4 Quadrupole Magnetic Shift in Sun Mimics Mini Ice Ages

Thanks KoRn.

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[dfwgator]

[GRRRRR]

Yeah, I read that too...we are so screwed, either the Obommer gets in or we git Mitts or the sun blows up...dang.

[Revolting cat!]

As if 40 million Poles on earth wasn’t enough!

[4buttons]

that’s a fact.

[ApplegateRanch]

Keep your tires inflated - that should ward off any ill effects.

Only if you also eat your peas. Pea plants fix nitrogen (which I didn't even know was broken!) so that they can convert more CO^2 into O^2 + C...which is why peas always carbonize when you let the pot boil dry.

That carbon from the carbonized peas can then be recovered (didn't really know that carbon was upholstered, let alone needed a new covering, either) to make more tires to be inflated with the now-repaired nitrogen.

I am amazed everyday at what I can learn & share just by reading Free Republic...it is well worth a small monthly donation!

[PapaBear3625]

Is the sun cooler during a shallow cycle?

The theory is that the sunspot level is an indicator of the strength of the solar magnetic field. When the solar field is strong, the earth is better shielded from cosmic ray particles (high velocity charged particles). Higher levels of cosmic ray particles promote cloud formation, resulting is less solar heating of the ground. So low sunspot level = low solar magnetic field = more clouds = lower temperatures.

Of course the whole notion is ridiculous, since everybody knows that the Earth's temperature is solely determined by the CO2 level.

Still there is that pesky correlation, where the Maunder Minimum of 1650-1700 coincided with the Little Ice Age, and similar cool effects happening during the Dalton Minimum, but that's just crazy talk.