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Solar Activity Diminishes; Researchers Predict Another Ice Age
dailytech.com ^ | February 9, 2008 | Michael Asher

Posted on 02/09/2008 12:25:57 PM PST by neverdem

Global Cooling comes back in a big way

Dr. Kenneth Tapping is worried about the sun. Solar activity comes in regular cycles, but the latest one is refusing to start. Sunspots have all but vanished, and activity is suspiciously quiet. The last time this happened was 400 years ago -- and it signaled a solar event known as a "Maunder Minimum," along with the start of what we now call the "Little Ice Age."

Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, says it may be happening again. Overseeing a giant radio telescope he calls a "stethoscope for the sun," Tapping says, if the pattern doesn't change quickly, the earth is in for some very chilly weather.

During the Little Ice Age, global temperatures dropped sharply. New York Harbor froze hard enough to allow people to walk from Manhattan to Staten Island, and in Britain, people reported sighting eskimos paddling canoes off the coast. Glaciers in Norway grew up to 100 meters a year, destroying farms and villages.

But will it happen again?

In 2005, Russian astronomer Khabibullo Abdusamatov predicted the sun would soon peak, triggering a rapid decline in world temperatures. Only last month, the view was echoed by Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. who advised the world to "stock up on fur coats." Sorokhtin, who calls man's contribution to climate change "a drop in the bucket," predicts the solar minimum to occur by the year 2040, with icy weather lasting till 2100 or beyond.

Observational data seems to support the claims -- or doesn't contradict it, at least. According to data from Britain's Met Office, the earth has cooled very slightly since 1998. The Met Office says global warming "will pick up again shortly." Others aren't so sure.

Researcher Dr. Timothy Patterson, director of the Geoscience Center at Carleton University, shares the concern. Patterson is finding "excellent correlations" between solar fluctuations, a relationship that historically, he says doesn't exist between CO2 and past climate changes. According to Patterson. we shouldn't be surprised by a solar link. "The sun [is] the ultimate source of energy on this planet," he says.

Such research dates back to 1991, when the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study showing that world temperatures over the past several centuries correlated very closely with solar cycles. A 2004 study by the Max Planck Institute found a similar correlation, but concluded the timing was only coincidental, as the solar variance seemed too small to explain temperature changes.

However, researchers at DMI continued to work, eventually discovering what they believe to be the link. The key factor isn't changes in solar output, but rather changes in the sun's magnetosphere A stronger field shields the earth more from cosmic rays, which act as "seeds" for cloud formation. The result is less cloud cover, and a warming planet. When the field weakens, clouds increases, reflecting more light back to space, and the earth cools off.

Recently, lead researcher Henrik Svensmark was able to experimentally verify the link between cosmic rays and cloud formation, in a cloud chamber experiment called "SKY" at the Danish National Space Center. CERN plans a similar experiment this year.

A few years ago, Stanford University's Hoover Institution also reported finding a correlation between the sun and climate. Hoover

Even NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies -- long the nation's most ardent champion of anthropogenic global warming -- is getting in on the act. Drew Shindell, a researcher at GISS, says there are some "interesting relationships we don't fully understand" between solar activity and climate.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agw; catastrophism; climatechange; globalwarming; maunderminimum; notmanmade; solar; solaractivity; sunspots; thecomingiceage
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To: WildcatClan

I’ve often said the only way out is for algore to convince liberals to commit mass suicide because hey emit CO2 and need to save the planet...it’s their ONLY way out!


61 posted on 02/09/2008 2:05:33 PM PST by tpanther
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To: neverdem
Dr. Kenneth Tapping is worried about the sun. Solar activity comes in regular cycles, but the latest one is refusing to start. Sunspots have all but vanished, and activity is suspiciously quiet. The last time this happened was 400 years ago -- and it signaled a solar event known as a "Maunder Minimum," along with the start of what we now call the "Little Ice Age."

Those of us into amateur radio know this as the "skip cycle", which occurrs every 11 years. It's already late in starting, and what few bursts of skip there have been haven't lasted very long. Skip is directly related to the solar cycle, ironically just like so-called "global warming" is .. LOL.

62 posted on 02/09/2008 2:10:48 PM PST by usconservative (www.ropma.net -->ISLAM a religion of peace? (Mr. President, you're nuts if you believe it!))
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To: usconservative
Dr. Kenneth Tapping is worried about the sun.

This could be series. But, you know, it is best to worry about things you can actually do something about if you have to worry about something.

63 posted on 02/09/2008 2:13:46 PM PST by RightWhale (Clam down! avoid ataque de nervosa)
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To: traderrob6

Quick! Congress needs to get a global warming stimulus package together to stop the global cooling. We’ll issue a 1983 454 suburban to every man, woman and child in the country and pass a federal law that you have to drive at least 30 miles to work each way. If you live closer then that you have to circle the block first. All hybrid cars have to be taken to the landfill so they can be trashed.

I mean that would do it right?

Of course if the sun’s fire is going out, maybe we just need to shoot some fire wood or coal over there and get it going again.


64 posted on 02/09/2008 2:17:10 PM PST by Michael Knight (Young loner in a dangerous world of liberals who operate above the law.)
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To: JerseyHighlander

Yes I do have an interest in Astronomy. I don’t think we will find out until March or April whether we are looking for a minimum like DAlton or Maunder. I have seen a recent photo that shows a reversed polarity sunspot in the Northern hemisphere of the sun (an x-ray photo)which should be the start of Cycle 24, but I am not sure we know if the cycle is going to be ordinary or whether it will be of reduced energy. Stay tuned.


65 posted on 02/09/2008 2:18:47 PM PST by TexanToTheCore (If it ain't Rugby or Bullriding, it's for girls.........................................)
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To: L,TOWM

“Anyone else other than me feel pretty dammed sad that the only people that seem to be speaking with some honesty and real research into climate change are the RUSSIANS?”

Well, they already have/had communism there so they dont need to lie about global warming to scare the sheeple into embracing socialism. Thats just for us.


66 posted on 02/09/2008 2:19:57 PM PST by Michael Knight (Young loner in a dangerous world of liberals who operate above the law.)
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To: Arthur McGowan; Abathar

>> I wish I had your flare for science.

It’s the intention of the spelling that counts... /g


67 posted on 02/09/2008 2:21:18 PM PST by Gene Eric
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To: traderrob6

AP......

In a study at Cornell by Dr Imaliar, it was found that when ionospheric ozone strips the oxygen molecules from the superabundant global warming causitive carbon dioxide, the left over charged carbon escaped and was attracted sunward. In the past 20 years these escaped carbon ions have been burned up by the sun and the resultant back draft reduced the sun spot activity.

Global warming has thus been shown to cause a reduction of Hyerdall sunspot activity.


68 posted on 02/09/2008 2:23:28 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . "You can't be that way"......... Clint)
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To: maine-iac7
It's +40 F today. My global warming residue is getting smaller. There is black asphalt visible on the street again (instead of buried under 6 inches of solid ice plus a few inches of snow). I didn't even need a jacket today.
69 posted on 02/09/2008 2:24:28 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: neverdem
I remember as a kid growing up in the 60's reading about the coming ice age in my Weekly Reader. Then we had years of global warming tripe. Now we are looking at another ice age again. IN ONE LIFETIME??????

Nobody knows. Everyone's full of sh*t.

70 posted on 02/09/2008 2:25:04 PM PST by LiberConservative
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To: RightWhale
The crisis is over. The cold snap ended today. It is only -20.

Great. Now you can make naked snow angels without getting too many cuts from sharp pieces of ice.

71 posted on 02/09/2008 2:25:53 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: Gene Eric

close but no cigar..... see post 68 for the AP story


72 posted on 02/09/2008 2:27:00 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . "You can't be that way"......... Clint)
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To: neverdem

If this cooling happens, people will be burning more and more fossil fuels. Just think of all the CO2 released and what it will do to the planet!


73 posted on 02/09/2008 2:27:29 PM PST by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: neverdem

Ice age?
Good, it’s hot here in Florida.


74 posted on 02/09/2008 2:29:47 PM PST by Joe Boucher (An enemy of Islam)
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To: wiggen

But I wonder how they got the earth so close without us burning up?
susie


75 posted on 02/09/2008 2:34:39 PM PST by brytlea (amnesty--an act of clemency by an authority by which pardon is granted esp. to a group of individual)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Oh my, where is all that water going? I remember a series in the 1980s called “V”. The aliens were going to suck up all the water from our planet. Perhaps it’s really happening!
susie


76 posted on 02/09/2008 2:43:10 PM PST by brytlea (amnesty--an act of clemency by an authority by which pardon is granted esp. to a group of individual)
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To: bert

>> close but no cigar..... see post 68 for the AP story

was a joke


77 posted on 02/09/2008 2:45:07 PM PST by Gene Eric
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To: xzins

It does not work for me. It still come out as filleter of fish. Hmmmmmm


78 posted on 02/09/2008 2:51:28 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: neverdem

Algore = false prophet.

I live in Alaska, we have minus 70 temps hitting the state this week. However, not all that unusual this time of year.

Something doesn’t jibe with this new global cooling talk. I also live near quite a few large glaciers and every one of them are retreating not advancing. If its global cooling you would expect them to be advancing. Maybe they will, they just haven’t had time yet to reverse the trend and start the other way.


79 posted on 02/09/2008 2:51:53 PM PST by sasportas
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To: Arthur McGowan

Touché!! Ouch!!


80 posted on 02/09/2008 2:52:37 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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