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Explanation: The surface of our Sun is constantly changing. Some years it is quiet, showing relatively few sunspots and active regions. Other years it is churning, showing many sunspots and throwing frequent Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and flares. Reacting to magnetism, our Sun's surface goes through periods of relative calm, called Solar Minimum and relative unrest, called Solar Maximum, every 11 years. The featured video shows on the left a month in late 2019 when the Sun was near Solar Minimum, while on the right a month in 2014 when near Solar Maximum. The video was taken by NASA's Solar...

A GLOBAL MAGNETIC ANOMALY: On June 23rd, Earth’s quiet magnetic field was unexpectedly disturbed by a wave of magnetism that rippled around much of the globe. There was no solar storm or geomagnetic storm to cause the disturbance. So what was it?

The last time this occurred was between 1650 and 1715, during what's known as the Little Ice Age in Earth's Northern Hemisphere... Scientists have known this solar minimum was coming because it's a regular aspect of the sun's cycle. Sunspots were peaking in 2014, with low points beginning in 2019, according to NASA. The sun is also responsible for what's known as space weather, sending particles and cosmic rays streaming across our solar system. The sun's strongly magnetised sunspots release solar flares, which can send X-rays and ultraviolet radiation hurtling toward Earth. Even when the sun is quiet during the...

That fiery ball in space does settle down every 11 years or so. It’s called the solar minimum, and the Space Weather Prediction Center indicates that this phase of low sunspot activity will continue for a few more years. During a solar minimum, the sun has very few sunspots on its surface, which some speculate could affect the earth’s weather. In contrast, a solar maximum has more sunspots on its surface and solar activity is high. “Usually a solar minimum lasts about a year or so, but then sometimes it can last for decades or even longer,” said Prof. Jason...

Daily observations of the number of sunspots since 1 January 1900 according to Solar Influences Data Analysis Center (SIDC). The thin blue line indicates the daily sunspot number, while the dark blue line indicates the running annual average. The recent low sunspot activity is clearly reflected in the recent low values for the total solar irradiance. Data source: WDC-SILSO, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels. Last day shown: 31 October 2019. Last diagram update: 1 November 2019. [Courtesy climate4you.com] *Deep solar minimum on the verge of an historic milestone* Overview The sun is currently in the midst of a deep solar...

Professor Valentina Zharkova’s recent paper ‘Oscillations of the Baseline of Solar Magnetic Field and Solar Irradiance on a Millennial Timescale’ has been accepted for publishing in Nature. It confirms a Grand Solar Minimum (GSM) from 2020 to 2055, as all four magnetic fields of the sun go out of phase, while also suggesting centuries of natural warming post-Minima. Zharkova’s team’s expanded ‘double dynamo’ calculations match-up almost perfectly with the timelines of past Grand Minimas: the Maunder Minimum (1645–1715), Wolf minimum (1300–1350), Oort minimum (1000–1050), Homer minimum (800–900 BC); as well as with the past Grand Maximas: the Medieval Warm Period...

THE current solar minimum could last for more than three decades which could lead to temperatures plummeting across the globe, scientists have warned.

...why is its outer atmosphere hotter than its fiery surface? University of Michigan researchers believe they have the answer, and hope to prove it with help from NASA's Parker Solar Probe. In roughly two years, the probe will be the first manmade craft to enter the zone surrounding the sun where heating looks fundamentally different than what has previously been seen in space. This will allow them to test their theory that the heating is due to small magnetic waves travelling back and forth within the zone... Such high temperatures cause the solar atmosphere to swell to many times the...

One of the big questions in solar physics is why the Sun's activity follows a regular cycle of 11 years. Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), an independent German research institute, now present new findings, indicating that the tidal forces of Venus, Earth and Jupiter influence the solar magnetic field, thus governing the solar cycle.

Eruptions from the face of our star are called ‘prominences’ and cause vast amounts of superhot gas to shoot into space, often forming beautiful loops on the solar surface. During the solar minimum, the number of flares and sunspots is dramatically reduced. When the sun leaps back from its minimum after roughly 11 years, we’re likely to see more and more ferocious explosions on the sun. Nasa warned: ‘After our Sun passes the current Solar Minimum, solar activity like eruptive prominences are expected to become more common over the next few years.’ The space agency has just released dramatic pictures...

Xazier Bias walked out of the Whole Food Market in Pasadena and saw another woman looking to the ground puzzled at the white stuff covering the sidewalk. The woman wasn’t sure exactly what she was looking at. But Bias, who is originally from the East Coast, quickly set her straight. It was snow. “People didn’t know what it was,” Bias said. “I was like, no, this is snow.” It was that kind of day in some parts of Southern California, which saw snow level plunge to extremely low levels, creating a winter wonderland, at least for a minutes. Snow fell...

A colossal storm is poised to barrel across the northern Sierra Nevada Wednesday evening, with high winds whipping heavy falling snow and creating blizzard conditions. The National Weather Service advised against all travel in the mountain range straddling California and Nevada through Thursday. "I would call this storm extremely dangerous," said Karleisa Rogacheski, a meteorologist with the NWS Sacramento office. "During whiteout conditions, it's going to be near-impossible to drive." The NWS has issued a winter storm warning for elevations between 5,500 feet and 6,500 and a blizzard warning for elevations above 7,o00 feet, where conditions will be "potentially life-threatening"...

While NASA has now confirmed that the outer atmosphere is getting cooler, it seems desperately insane for people to keep denying the possibility the Global Cooling is taking place rather than Global Warming when the former brings famine and the latter brings economic expansion as civilizations rise. The rise of Rome was due to global warming as was the case after the Dark Age when they call that the Medieval Warming Period which was 950 to 1300AD. The concern from just a technical model perspective is that the warming period we have had post-1600 and the low of the Little...

A leading pioneer in the study of Grand Solar Minima and their effects on the planet has been solar physicist Professor Valentina Zharkova of Northumbria University. She has been attacked savagely for her theory that the weakened solar magnetosphere during a Grand Solar Minimum is the main factor in driving global cooling on Earth, but she is increasingly being vindicated as global cooling progresses. Recently, Professor Zharkova gave a lecture to the Global Warming Policy Foundation. You can view the lecture below, but it’s heavy-going. Here’s a summary of her main points: • The solar magnetosphere is key to understanding...

Recent research by Professor Valentina Zharkova (Northumbria University) and colleagues has shed new light on the inner workings of the Sun. If correct, this new discovery means that future solar cycles and variations in the Sun’s activity can be predicted more accurately. The research suggests that the next three solar cycles will see solar activity reduce significantly into the middle of the century, producing conditions similar to those last seen in the 1600s – during the Maunder Minimum. This may have implications for temperatures here on Earth. Future solar cycles will serve as a test of the astrophysicists’ work, but...

Make the most of this summer because it could be your last decent one: winter is coming as the planet enters the most devastating cooling period since the 65-year Maunder Minimum of the 17th and early 18th centuries. This is the dire forecast of Professor Valentina Zharkova, a solar physicist at Northumbria University, who has based her prediction on sun spot activity – known to be a significant driver of global climate – which is currently very low and likely to get even lower during the next three solar cycles. She has spoken about her research and her battle to get it taken...

One hundred fifty-nine years ago, our sun belched out a sea of charged particles aimed at Earth. It sped toward us at millions of miles per hour, walloping the planet hard enough to addle the world's telegraph systems and bring the northern lights as far south as Jamaica. Damage from the solar storm, called the Carrington Event, was pretty limited — chiefly because the world didn't have a lot of very long wires that are susceptible to disruption. But that was then, and a massive solar storm will come our way again. That's because the sun is constantly convulsing with...

A massive "hole" on the surface of the sun has unleashed a strong solar wind that scientists say may amp up the northern lights in some areas of the U.S. and could disrupt satellite communications over the next few days. Data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory revealed a vast region where the sun's magnetic field has opened up, creating a gap in the sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona. This region, also known as a coronal hole, allows charged particles to escape and flow toward Earth in an increased solar wind. As a result, the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center...

Such storms only occur occasionally but result in a massive spike in geomagnetic activity and radiation. For driverless vehicles which rely heavily on GPS, this could cause mayhem as the connection between a GPS system and the satellites could be cut off. In theory, disaster could follow on the roads. According to Scott McIntosh, director of the high-altitude observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, using GPS heavily in programming a driverless car from Point A to Point B is an issue. ... Fortunately, there are systems in place to avoid truly disastrous scenarios. In fact,...

Lead author, Henrik Svensmark, from The Technical University of Denmark has long held that climate models had greatly underestimated the impact of solar activity. He says the new research identified the feedback mechanism through which the sun’s impact on climate was varied. Professor Svensmark’s theories on solar impact have caused a great deal of controversy within the climate science community and the latest findings are sure to provoke new outrage. He does not dispute that increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have a warming impact on the climate. But his findings present a challenge to estimates of how...