Posted on 04/22/2012 4:05:43 PM PDT by 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 Londons 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 suns magnetic field flips about once every 11 years. In 2001, the suns 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.
Note in the replies that of the poor English cleric near the top.
Czcibor,Czeslaw,Dariusz & Grzegorz???
How bad can it be?
Keep your tires inflated - that should ward off any ill effects.
bttt
/mark
Czcibor,Czeslaw,Dariusz & Grzegorz???
Those darned Poles. Didn’t they join the Kyoto Accord thingamabob?
Don’t forget to get a tune-up too!
Quad polar dissorder?
Well, then, thank goodness for global warming, eh?
The sun is a tangled magnetic mass of multiple poles.
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.
four-pole magnetic structureWhy not n+1 poles
an infinite number of poles
>>The sun is a tangled magnetic mass of multiple poles.
Just like Warsaw.
You’ll find a mass of poles at any Catholic church in Warsaw.
The scientific consensus is that CO2 heats the earth, not the sun.
Get with the program, you idiots.
%%
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...
%%
If nobama had a sun, it would look like this.
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