Solar Minimum has Arrived

NASA ^ | 03.06.2006 | Dr. Tony Phillips

[fanfan]

I went to the link, and tried to bump it.


I guess it's too old!

Like us!

[Dustbunny]

Bump for later

[backhoe]

"I went to the link, and tried to bump it.
I guess it's too old!
Like us!"

---

Appreciate the attempt. Yes, I feel my age, but I like pointing out to Miss Emily, who is a decade younger than I, "I can still outrun, outfight, and outwork you, so don't get too cocky about being so much younger..."

That old post is still a sentimental favorite of mine- many years ago, I was the Polish Solar Observer's Society's sole American observer- I did sunspot counts for their compillation of the Wolf Number:
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/SOLAR/SSN/ssn.html

[VadeRetro]

Looks like she's gettin' ready to blow!

[Wiseghy]

Add me to the list.

BTW, I've had some odd interference on my Sat. TV (dish network) for the last week or two. I thought it was solar, but if we're at the minimum, that seems unlikely.

[fanfan]

I saw that.

And you had an article in Canadian Astronomy about dark skies?

Cool!

[Denver Ditdat]

Welcome to the list!

[Alas Babylon!]

We'll be able to answer that in about a month.

[backhoe]

Yes, I wrote several articles for newsletter of the "Observer's Journal" of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada back in the early nineteen-eighties. One was something about tips for observing from a light-polluted environment, and danged if I can recall what the others were. Somewhere, in an eggcrate of "stuff," I still have copies. Writers are hams, who never tire of seeing their own name in ink.

It all sounds very grand, but the newsletter was hand-typed and then xeroxed, and they were hungry for fillers. However, it was more than could be said for my late, first brother-in-law's works. Despite attending college for virtually all his life ( I called him a Professional Student... ) studying writing and ancillary fields, he never got a thing into print. Too busy writing "the next Great American Novel," he viewed such yeomanly work as magazine articles or ad copy as being beneath him.

Each thing I had published was like unto coals of fire, heaped on his head.

[fanfan]

LOL!

[Calvin Locke]

Shortwave? How about during 1859, a solar storm was so strong it enabled it to be 1.) observed, 2.) connected to auroras,
and 3.) disrupt telegraph systems.

[Nowhere Man]

The eleven-year solar cycle is actually twenty-two years. Halfway through, the magnetism of the sunspots reverses.

I have books about radio electronics from the 1930's to the 1950's that claim there could be a 22 year cycle theory too.

[Nowhere Man]

Great article. Sunspot activity also affects radio communications. A series of books I'm hooked on, 1632, by Eric Flint which is a SF story that sets and entire town of modern folk into the middle of Germany in 1632 has to take this into account as it continues. Seems that during the Maunder Minimum, it would have been difficult to use shortwave radio for long distance communication because you wouldn't get the atmospheric skip that you do today. BTW: the above link is a free copy of the entire 1632 novel available from the Baen Free Library.

You can download several books from the series and many others, free of charge. No registration, no nothing. They are available in several different formats. I highly recommend the 1632 series.

I love "1632!" My guess on shortwave communication, had it existed then, is most likely at night, you would probably have to resort to using frequencies from above the AM band (1700 kc) to about 7000 kc. Daytime, maybe 9000 kc to around 14,000 or 15,000 kc much like you'd experience in the solar minimum. Anything above perhaps 20,000 kc would be useless for long distance comms, most likely act VHF-like in behaviour. You might have to resort to some sort of VLF backup system for long range comms much like our subs use where you can at least ocmmunicate using low baud data from a computer or teletype, perhaps using Morse Code too.

One question I always wanted to have answered is, does Mars have an ionosphere? How about the Moon? What would shortwave comms be like on Mars or the Moon? OK, that's three but still it is interesting to wonder. B-)

[gleeaikin]

"Twenty-two year cycle"

I have noticed that when there is a particularly severe drought, the whether people are likely to talk about "the worst in 22 years", and sometimes about the sun spot cycles.

When I took Astronomy in 1959, there was also talk of a larger 88 year cycle. Now let's see, 1929 plus 88 equals 2017. We are having major droughts in the west and Texas. Perhaps this is a warmup for what will happen in 11 years; another Dust Bowl??

[SunkenCiv]