Posted on 12/04/2009 9:41:40 AM PST by dila813
September 3, 2009: The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Weeks and sometimes whole months go by without even a single tiny sunspot. The quiet has dragged out for more than two years, prompting some observers to wonder, are sunspots disappearing?
"Personally, I'm betting that sunspots are coming back," says researcher Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona. But, he allows, "there is some evidence that they won't."
Penn's colleague Bill Livingston of the NSO has been measuring the magnetic fields of sunspots for the past 17 years, and he has found a remarkable trend. Sunspot magnetism is on the decline:
(Excerpt) Read more at science.nasa.gov ...
“Personally, I’m betting that sunspots are coming back,” says researcher Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona. But, he allows, “there is some evidence that they won’t.”
I’m assuming that (Dr.?) Penn was misquoted, or quoted out of context. Making such statements about a well established cycle, is rather like noting that you lose 2 minutes of daylight per day in the fall, and extrapolating to the conclusion that it will be completely dark (24/7) by next summer.
I sincerely doubt anyone that could call themselves a scientific “researcher” would have made such a statement.
Do you suppose the reporter’s degree has “science” printed anywhere on the diploma?
The article states that 1500 gauss is needed for sunspot formation.
It is lost on liberals that we are really still at the end of the last ice age.
The earth goes through cycles, if we are still in the last ice age then it goes without saying at some point we won’t be in an ice age anymore and therefore everything will be warmer.
Yes, they will disappear within the next 18 months. 6 months thereafter the sun will extinguish itself and collapse into a worm hole sucking in the entire planetary system with it. The reason? Cow farts. We have minutes, day’s to act to stop this. It will take all your money, your modern conveniences and the last bit of sense humanity has....we are doomed unless we act! Act Now! Visit the ‘Hopenhagen’ Website and sign the petition!
the magnetic field is declining.
If it gets too weak, no sun spots.
Regardless of where we are in the cycle, it has been weakening steadily.
No. I’m sorry, this area of science is tainted and it would be criminal to ever make any sort of prediction with any sort of financial consequences based on a climate “scientist.” Unless they purge their ranks, HARD, they should have all the credibility of astrologers and alchemists.
Certainly, they will come back. Maybe not in our lifetimes!
The thing that scares me is this. If we are entering a minimum, the reaction of the sun might go like this for a while: Much lower (than average) lows, followed by the spots coming back with a vengeance. (I mean at the beginning of the minimum). Finally, for a few years, then settling down to lower lows and lower highs.
Make sense?
It’s a cycle, long cycles, short cycles, cycles inside of cycles, and then boom, the earth is going to get scorched with a super, mega, gigantic flare, melting the ice sheets covering North America, and giving hope to the last of the Goreheads left alive.
You are dead on right,
at that point it will be natural for the earth to freeze and we shouldn’t interfere with it.
Even further beyond them is the notion that warming is good, cooling is bad, for people, plants, and animals.
This is about the strength of the magnetic field and not the number of sunspots.
If the field is too weak, no sun spots can form.
I have Popular Science magazines from the 1980s warning of the “coming mini-ice age”.That was before the socialist drummed up the global warming scam.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914,00.html
"Man, too, may be somewhat responsible for the cooling trend. The University of Wisconsin's Reid A. Bryson and other climatologists suggest that dust and other particles released into the atmosphere as a result of farming and fuel burning may be blocking more and more sunlight from reaching and heating the surface of the earth."
September 3, 2009: The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Weeks and sometimes whole months go by without even a single tiny sunspot. The quiet has dragged out for more than two years, prompting some observers to wonder, are sunspots disappearing?
"Personally, I'm betting that sunspots are coming back," says researcher Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona. But, he allows, "there is some evidence that they won't."
Now..., I would consider this to be a whole lot more serious science than all the "Anthropogenic Global Warming" stuff that I've seen where other scientists are talking about burning up... LOL...
Yeah. I’ve been watching the progress (regress?) of the sunspot cycle for a few decades now as it’s intimately associated with one of my hobbies (amateur radio). No sunspots, lousy propagation. Seems like I saw an article on this in one of the trade magazines lately. If you’re interested I could dig it up and forward it to you.
I’m not entirely convinced it’s a “sure thing” big deal. Raising corn in western Nebraska might be more challenging if things continue to cool off. I’ll take global warming over global freezing if the choice is offered.
Intersting graph, though it would be nice to see the last 30 years as well. I’m a little dubious of the smoothing. It seems like the red line should have droppped more than it did when sunspots dropped so much in the 1960’s. A similar increase in the 1970s caused the line to move up.
Lots of graphs here:
That’s right, and this graph goes through an entire solar cycle.
Very worrying trend.
Everyone needs to separate the magnetic field vs sun spots, sun spots have gone up and down, but the magnetic field is heading consistently in the same direction.
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