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Solar Minimum is Coming
NASA ^ | 27 June 2017

Posted on 07/02/2017 7:42:33 PM PDT by Lorianne

~~ could not copy and paste text~~


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science; Weather
KEYWORDS: maunderminimum; searchworks; sol; solarminimum; sun; sunspots; valentinazharkova
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Screwy website, could not copy and past text. If anyone can do it please do.
1 posted on 07/02/2017 7:42:33 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

The Sun is too close due to man!!!
How much in taxes do I have to pay to keep it away??


2 posted on 07/02/2017 7:45:25 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: Lorianne

3 posted on 07/02/2017 7:47:40 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Islam: You have to just love a "religion" based on rape and sex slavery.)
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To: Lorianne

We’re all gonna die. News @ 11.


4 posted on 07/02/2017 7:47:50 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: minnesota_bound

It’s carbon dioxide induced climate change. Didn’t you see “Day After Tomorrow”?


5 posted on 07/02/2017 7:48:22 PM PDT by Thickman (Libsteria is funnier than confounded GOP "leaders".)
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To: Lorianne

Governments should be planning for famines, taking advantage of the global warming cycle and storing up food and finding technology to go to indoors better, rather wasting time pushing a false story for power and $$$.


6 posted on 07/02/2017 7:48:33 PM PDT by madison10
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To: minnesota_bound

It must be from global warming, 0bama hatred, racism and distrust of the environmental elitists. We are doomed.


7 posted on 07/02/2017 7:48:44 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Lorianne

High up in the clear blue noontime sky, the sun appears to be much the same day-in, day-out, year after year.

But astronomers have long known that this is not true. The sun does change. Properly-filtered telescopes reveal a fiery disk often speckled with dark sunspots. Sunspots are strongly magnetized, and they crackle with solar flares—magnetic explosions that illuminate Earth with flashes of X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation. The sun is a seething mass of activity.

Until it’s not. Every 11 years or so, sunspots fade away, bringing a period of relative calm.

“This is called solar minimum,” says Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. “And it’s a regular part of the sunspot cycle.”

The sun is heading toward solar minimum now. Sunspot counts were relatively high in 2014, and now they are sliding toward a low point expected in 2019-2020.

While intense activity such as sunspots and solar flares subside during solar minimum, that doesn’t mean the sun becomes dull. Solar activity simply changes form.

For instance, says Pesnell, “during solar minimum we can see the development of long-lived coronal holes.”

Coronal holes are vast regions in the sun’s atmosphere where the sun’s magnetic field opens up and allows streams of solar particles to escape the sun as the fast solar wind.

Pesnell says “We see these holes throughout the solar cycle, but during solar minimum, they can last for a long time - six months or more.” Streams of solar wind flowing from coronal holes can cause space weather effects near Earth when they hit Earth’s magnetic field. These effects can include temporary disturbances of the Earth’s magnetosphere, called geomagnetic storms, auroras, and disruptions to communications and navigation systems.

During solar minimum, the effects of Earth’s upper atmosphere on satellites in low Earth orbit changes too.

Normally Earth’s upper atmosphere is heated and puffed up by ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Satellites in low Earth orbit experience friction as they skim through the outskirts of our atmosphere. This friction creates drag, causing satellites to lose speed over time and eventually fall back to Earth. Drag is a good thing, for space junk; natural and man-made particles floating in orbit around Earth. Drag helps keep low Earth orbit clear of debris.

But during solar minimum, this natural heating mechanism subsides. Earth’s upper atmosphere cools and, to some degree, can collapse. Without a normal amount of drag, space junk tends to hang around.

There are unique space weather effects that get stronger during solar minimum. For example, the number of galactic cosmic rays that reach Earth’s upper atmosphere increases during solar minimum. Galactic cosmic rays are high energy particles accelerated toward the solar system by distant supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy.

Pesnell says that “During solar minimum, the sun’s magnetic field weakens and provides less shielding from these cosmic rays. This can pose an increased threat to astronauts traveling through space.”

Solar minimum brings about many changes to our sun, but less solar activity doesn’t make the sun and our space environment any less interesting.


8 posted on 07/02/2017 7:50:23 PM PDT by kanawa (Trump Loves a Great Deal)
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To: MtnClimber

Globalist Warming...


9 posted on 07/02/2017 7:50:32 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spelchk nor wrong word auto substition on mobile dev. Please be intelligent and deal with it....)
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To: Lorianne

Oh noes!!! Global Cooling!!! They'll figure out how to label it "man made" ... just give 'em time.
br>
10 posted on 07/02/2017 7:51:19 PM PDT by so_real ( "The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.")
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To: madison10
Governments should be planning for famines,

Expect a project as big as the Manhattan Project in Trump's second term

Life becomes cold...brutish and short.

11 posted on 07/02/2017 7:51:49 PM PDT by spokeshave (The Fake Media tried to stop us from going to the White House, I am President and they are not. DJT)
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To: Lorianne

12 posted on 07/02/2017 7:52:47 PM PDT by PROCON (President Reagan, your worthy successor has arrived to save our beloved America)
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To: Lorianne

The guy who took the Venus image flew with my cousin on the space shuttle.

Runco was the photog and McMonagle is my cousin on this flight:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-54


13 posted on 07/02/2017 7:55:36 PM PDT by Slyfox (Where's Reagan when we need him? Look in the mirror - the spirit of The Gipper lives within you.)
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To: Lorianne

Women and minorities hardest hit.


14 posted on 07/02/2017 7:56:16 PM PDT by Noumenon ("Only the dead have seen an end to war.")
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To: kanawa

Thank you!


15 posted on 07/02/2017 8:00:19 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

High up in the clear blue noontime sky, the sun appears to be much the same day-in, day-out, year after year.

But astronomers have long known that this is not true. The sun does change. Properly-filtered telescopes reveal a fiery disk often speckled with dark sunspots. Sunspots are strongly magnetized, and they crackle with solar flares—magnetic explosions that illuminate Earth with flashes of X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation. The sun is a seething mass of activity.

Until it’s not. Every 11 years or so, sunspots fade away, bringing a period of relative calm.

“This is called solar minimum,” says Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. “And it’s a regular part of the sunspot cycle.”

The sun is heading toward solar minimum now. Sunspot counts were relatively high in 2014, and now they are sliding toward a low point expected in 2019-2020.

While intense activity such as sunspots and solar flares subside during solar minimum, that doesn’t mean the sun becomes dull. Solar activity simply changes form.

For instance, says Pesnell, “during solar minimum we can see the development of long-lived coronal holes.”

Coronal holes are vast regions in the sun’s atmosphere where the sun’s magnetic field opens up and allows streams of solar particles to escape the sun as the fast solar wind.

Pesnell says “We see these holes throughout the solar cycle, but during solar minimum, they can last for a long time - six months or more.” Streams of solar wind flowing from coronal holes can cause space weather effects near Earth when they hit Earth’s magnetic field. These effects can include temporary disturbances of the Earth’s magnetosphere, called geomagnetic storms, auroras, and disruptions to communications and navigation systems.

During solar minimum, the effects of Earth’s upper atmosphere on satellites in low Earth orbit changes too.

Normally Earth’s upper atmosphere is heated and puffed up by ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Satellites in low Earth orbit experience friction as they skim through the outskirts of our atmosphere. This friction creates drag, causing satellites to lose speed over time and eventually fall back to Earth. Drag is a good thing, for space junk; natural and man-made particles floating in orbit around Earth. Drag helps keep low Earth orbit clear of debris.

But during solar minimum, this natural heating mechanism subsides. Earth’s upper atmosphere cools and, to some degree, can collapse. Without a normal amount of drag, space junk tends to hang around.

There are unique space weather effects that get stronger during solar minimum. For example, the number of galactic cosmic rays that reach Earth’s upper atmosphere increases during solar minimum. Galactic cosmic rays are high energy particles accelerated toward the solar system by distant supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy.

Pesnell says that “During solar minimum, the sun’s magnetic field weakens and provides less shielding from these cosmic rays. This can pose an increased threat to astronauts traveling through space.”

Solar minimum brings about many changes to our sun, but less solar activity doesn’t make the sun and our space environment any less interesting.


16 posted on 07/02/2017 8:00:59 PM PDT by AnalogReigns (Real life is ANALOG...)
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To: Lorianne

The Silver Ships are boarding now ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0no_VtLYvYw


17 posted on 07/02/2017 8:06:09 PM PDT by soycd
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To: Lorianne

Perhaps a good time to buy tanning booths.


18 posted on 07/02/2017 8:11:52 PM PDT by mcmuffin (Jan. 20, 2017, Thank God!)
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To: Lorianne

Mmmmm. I’m a displaced mountain boy, and I am looking forward to a nice Alabama snow. Bring it.


19 posted on 07/02/2017 8:17:52 PM PDT by Viking2002 ("If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck." - John Steinbeck)
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To: Lorianne

Here in Tx my ‘tomater’ plants wouldnt mind a little solar minimum in July and August and neither would I.


20 posted on 07/02/2017 8:19:55 PM PDT by tflabo
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