Posted on 05/05/2015 7:54:35 AM PDT by rktman
The sun is almost completely blank. The main driver of all weather and climate, the entity which occupies 99.86% of all of the mass in our solar system, the great ball of fire in the sky has gone quiet again during what is likely to be the weakest sunspot cycle in more than a century. The sun's X-ray output has flatlined in recent days and NOAA forecasters estimate a scant 1% chance of strong flares in the next 24 hours. Not since cycle 14 peaked in February 1906 has there been a solar cycle with fewer sunspots. We are currently more than six years into Solar Cycle 24 and the current nearly blank sun may signal the end of the solar maximum phase. Solar cycle 24 began after an unusually deep solar minimum that lasted from 2007 to 2009 which included more spotless days on the sun compared to any minimum in almost a century.
(Excerpt) Read more at vencoreweather.com ...
I believe they had predicted several years ago that this cycle would be a weak one.
How terribly embarrassing for the Global Warmists.
The White Mosque: “Bush’s fault.”
Gore and the DNC: “It is white people’s fault”.
Needs a catchy name...
We’ve had Daltan Minimum, Maunder Minimum, Spörer Minimum and Homeric minimum.
What say you?
Algore Minumum? HockeyStick Minimum? ManBearPig Minimum?
ManBearPig Minimum.
I’m going outside to stare at it now let you now how it turns out
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_1024_HMIIF.jpg
My first cycle was a good one, back when I was a kid. I worked the world on 50 Watts.
My last cycle was a good one, where I worked from Texas to California on less than 4 watts of FM. FM, not CW.
And this cycle, probably my last one.. it's gonna be a weak one.
Oh well. I got some good cycles out of it and got to talk the world.
73's all.
/johnny (still listening to 6 meter FM call channel with a handi-talki.)
The sun can’t be causing globull warming. It’s too far away!
Oh I definitely vote ManBearPig!
Time to sell stocks!
It probably was photographs in the interim at the end of April where the sun was blank.
And Buy Gold!
Cosmic Rays Hit Space Age High
NASA.gov
Sept 29, 2009
"We're experiencing the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century," says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center, "so it is no surprise that cosmic rays are at record levels for the Space Age [i.e. past 50+ years or so -etl]."
Galactic cosmic rays come from outside the solar system. They are subatomic particles--mainly protons but also some heavy nuclei--accelerated to almost light speed by distant supernova explosions. Cosmic rays cause "air showers" of secondary particles when they hit Earth's atmosphere; they pose a health hazard to astronauts; and a single cosmic ray can disable a satellite if it hits an unlucky integrated circuit.
The sun's magnetic field is our first line of defense against these highly-charged, energetic particles. The entire solar system from Mercury to Pluto and beyond is surrounded by a bubble of magnetism called "the heliosphere." It springs from the sun's inner magnetic dynamo and is inflated to gargantuan proportions by the solar wind. When a cosmic ray tries to enter the solar system, it must fight through the heliosphere's outer layers; and if it makes it inside, there is a thicket of magnetic fields waiting to scatter and deflect the intruder.
An artist's concept of the heliosphere, a magnetic bubble that partially protects the solar system from cosmic rays.
"At times of low solar activity, this natural shielding is weakened, and more cosmic rays are able to reach the inner solar system," explains Pesnell."
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29sep_cosmicrays.htm
Are you kidding? They will just continue to doctor temperature evidence and use the Sun's weak cycle as even more proof that globull warming is all the fault of man, not rich, liberal man, just the common man trying to survive.
Catastrophism ping
Q-Does the number of sunspots have any effect on the climate here on Earth?
A-Sunspots are slightly cooler areas on the surface of the Sun, due to the intense magnetic fields, so they radiate a little less energy than the surroundings. However, there are usually nearby areas associated with the sunspots that are a little hotter (called falculae), and they more than compensate. The result is that there is a little bit more radiation coming from the Sun when it has more sunspots, but the effect is so small that it has very little impact on the weather and climate on Earth.
However, there are more important indirect effects: sunspots are associated with what we call "active regions", with large magnetic structures containing very hot material (being held in place by the magnetism). This causes more ultraviolet (or UV) radiation (the rays that give you a suntan or sunburn), and extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV). These types of radiation have an impact on the chemistry of the upper atmosphere (e.g. producing ozone). Since some of these products act as greenhouse gases, the number of sunspots (through association with active regions) may influence the climate in this way.
Many active regions produce giant outflows of material that are called Coronal Mass Ejections. These ejections drag with them some of the more intense magnetic fields that are found in the active regions. The magnetic fields act as a shield for high-energy particles coming from various sources in our galaxy (outside the solar system). These "cosmic rays" (CRs) cause ionization of molecules in the atmosphere, and thereby can cause clouds to form (because the ionized molecules or dust particle can act as "seeds" for drop formation).
If clouds are formed very high in the atmosphere, the net result is a heating of the Earth - it acts as a "blanket" that keeps warmth in.
If clouds are formed lower down in the atmosphere, they reflect sunlight better than they keep heat inside, so the net result is cooling.
Which processes are dominant is still a matter of research.
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/classroom/notsofaq.html#SUNSPOT_CLIMATE
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