The last time it was that low was during the Dalton Minimum of the early 1800's. We had "The Year Without a Summer" when we had a major volcanic event during the Dalton Minimum, with major crop failures.
Posted on 09/15/2010 9:38:58 AM PDT by Pyro7480
Scientists studying sunspots for the past 2 decades have concluded that the magnetic field that triggers their formation has been steadily declining. If the current trend continues, by 2016 the sun's face may become spotless and remain that way for decades—a phenomenon that in the 17th century coincided with a prolonged period of cooling on Earth.
Sunspots appear when upwellings of the sun's magnetic field trap ionized plasma—or electrically charged, superheated gas—on the surface. Normally, the gas would release its heat and sink back below the surface, but the magnetic field inhibits this process. From Earth, the relatively cool surface gas looks like a dark blemish on the sun.
...[S]cientists have long known that the sun goes through an 11-year cycle, in which the number of sunspots spikes during a period called the solar maximum and drops—sometimes to zero—during a time of inactivity called the solar minimum.
The last solar minimum should have ended last year, but something peculiar has been happening. Although solar minimums normally last about 16 months, the current one has stretched over 26 months—the longest in a century. One reason...is that the magnetic field strength of sunspots appears to be waning.
Since 1990, solar astronomers Matthew Penn and William Livingston...have been studying the magnetic strength of sunspots....Penn and Livingston conclude that the average magnetic field strength of sunspots has declined from about 2700 gauss—the average strength of Earth's field is less than 1 gauss—to about 2000 gauss. The reasons for the decrease are not clearly understood, but if the trend continues, sunspot field strength will drop to 1500 gauss by as early as 2016. Because 1500 gauss is the minimum required to produce sunspots, Livingston says, at that level they would no longer be possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sciencemag.org ...
The last time it was that low was during the Dalton Minimum of the early 1800's. We had "The Year Without a Summer" when we had a major volcanic event during the Dalton Minimum, with major crop failures.
Good one!!!
BAY St.Louis ~ we are, after all, about 5,000 years over due for the beginning of the next period of major glaciation!
See Spot
See Spot Run
See Spot Hide
Where’s Spot?
Brrrrrrr.....
[With current computer technologies, the identities of these advocates will be known for eternity.]
Only so far as the 1’s and 0’s can resist entropy...
≤}B^)
Yep.
I understand one of their favorite snacks is liberal, rare!
” I understand one of their favorite snacks is liberal, rare! “
Sad news for the Polar Bears - liberals are, in their natural state, ‘half-baked’..
It’s so frikking hot, I could use some relief. I hate summer in South Florida.
I hated those books, I could already read over that level by the time I was 5, mom obtained a library card for me and school was terribly boring with the spot, jane and dick books. Which of course has nothing what so ever to do with this thread and so my apologies!
Any chance we can tax our way out of the 2012 galactic alignment?
So, they would be snacking on half baked Alaska?
My husband was just saying the other day that he misses global warming.
We’ll have to get rid of our pool if this keeps up—only used it a couple of times this summer (and only a couple more times than that last year).
Get ready for some nasty winters in the northeast and Midwest in future years to come.
Nope, it was Texas banning plastic bags that did the trick.
Texas: Fee to use plastic bags after ban in Brownsville
Under new changes to the ban on plastic bags in Brownsville, shoppers will be charged an extra dollar for every transaction in which they use plastic bags after the ban goes into effect.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2587807/posts
Brownsville isn't Texas. It's been ceded to Mexico.
Yeah, along with Dallas, Austin, Houston, El Paso...
Them cities is full a' Yankee pukes anyways.
Ain't no real Texan livin in no city nowhere nohow.
'Cept maybe ta visit some poor soul or some such.
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