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.

[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.

---

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.