Posted on 11/09/2008 3:07:20 PM PST by steveo
After two-plus years of few sunspots, even fewer solar flares, and a generally eerie calm, the sun is finally showing signs of life.
"I think solar minimum is behind us," says sunspot forecaster David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
His statement is prompted by an October flurry of sunspots. "Last month we counted five sunspot groups," he says. That may not sound like much, but in a year with record-low numbers of sunspots and long stretches of utter spotlessness, five is significant. "This represents a real increase in solar activity."
Even more significant is the fact that four of the five sunspot groups belonged to Solar Cycle 24, the long-awaited next installment of the sun's 11-year solar cycle. "October was the first time we've seen sunspots from new Solar Cycle 24 outnumbering spots from old Solar Cycle 23. It's a good sign that the new cycle is taking off."
alt 1
Okay, so ALT plus 1 (one)? I get nothing. Using Firefox, for what it’s worth. Will open IE and try that.
Now in IE. Nope®.
Oh. I am using firefox. Its the ANSI character set
Whats the deal on HAM phonetics isnt there a standard?
Alpha,Bravo,Charlie,Delta,Echo,Foxtrot etc?
People are all over the map
I must be missing something. In Wingdings, a capital J makes a smiley. I have Firefox set to Times New Roman, though changing the font to Wingdings did nothing. Oh well, now I have something new to try and learn.
I am in character encoding IS0 8859-1, I think the font is times roman
Hey, I own that LP..... ;^)
I have 3 copys L0L
It’s a classic. Because I say it is! ;)
Or,
& # x 2 6 3 A
type this without the spaces.
You can find a lot of stuff by looking at the source. In Firefox its View>Page Source.
How about that uhhhhhhhh...never mind it was a spot on my screen.
Michael Crichton died a few days ago. Last night C-SPAN replayed a talk he gave in 2005, following the publication of State of Fear (on climate-change fanatics). Very interesting.
What a shame he's gone at 66. "Physician, heal thyself" still doesn't seem to work.
Hathaway has been hoping for solar cycle 24 to be BIG, peaking EARLY, and peaking HIGH for a long time now .....
No wonder he is promoting the few spots in October: since cycle 24 seems to be late, small, and with few sunspots.
BUT ...
He is probably right, activity does seem to be increasing - which may mean we are not into a multi-year (Dalton-like) minimum.
☺
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Okay, so there it is, via the Xinha extension. Let's see if I'll be able to remember it later. Thanks.
Thanks for the ping, Steve. Looking forward to operating my first solar max!
Dave
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