Sun's Strange Behavior Baffles Astronomers

Space.com ^ | 6/14/10 | Denise Chow

[catfish1957]

Thanks, I couldn’t get the html tags to work.

[240B]

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[Herosmith]

http://www.spaceweather.com

[JimSEA]

One hundred years worth of data is an absurdly short period of
time on which to base predictions.

[Yardstick]

Ignore it. It just wants attention.

[Bernard Marx]

Why do they think the Sun’s behavior is strange? Just because they have never seen it before?

LOL. Pompous, aren't they? 100 years of solar record-keeping out of the Earth's 4,500 million-year history! Hubris.

[Salamander]

I have like *1 hour* left on my DishNetwork DVR because I refuse to erase that movie and about 10 others too good to “throw away”.

[and probably 40 hours worth of “Ghost Hunters” reruns]...LOL

[FreeReign]

Check this out.

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/greenwch/spot_num.txt

Looks like the Jan. - Mar. uptick in sunspots has fizzled out in April and May.

[JRandomFreeper]

Use the < PRE> tag without the space to make your visual code work better. Otherwise, regular html makes your fist look like you've had too much tuner cleaner.

/73s johnny

[stboz]

We could be headed for a Maunder Minimum style of solar activity. Do I REALLY know? Of course not. Sunspot numbers have perked up a little...about 40 a couple of days ago.

Theory seems to go along the lines of "The Sun's magnetic field is strong when the Sun is active. That shields the Earth from incoming cosmic radiation. Cosmic radiation causes ionization of the atmosphere....which promotes cloud formation which reflects away solar radiation (heat)".

More clouds equals lower temps. Reverse it (the Sun) and you get less clouds and higher temps.

Time will tell....in about 40 years.

[21twelve]

This is old news to anyone that has been following the sun for the last two years. The sun spots were “supposed to” ramp up a couple of years ago. This next “high”, if the pattern follows, won’t be very high. Hard to predict ahead of time, but there are indicators.

I just hope it will only be like the “Maunder Minimum” (Little Ice Age) if it follows past solar cycle patterns.

The pattern that always scares me is the long-term termperatures of interglacial periods. The warm period we are in is the longest. And the temps drop very far and very quickly when they do.

[spokeshave]

"Maybe we are heading into a new ice age?

YES....another 400 year mini ice age if we are lucky.

last one was from 1350 to 1750

[valkyry1]

//Why do they think the Sun’s behavior is strange? Just because they have never seen it before?//

Sounds like it. Maybe if they wag their finger at it like duh one the Sun will straighten up and act right /sarc>

[spokeshave]

Check out http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/

today there are only 2 sunspots up.

[dfwgator]

The pattern that always scares me is the long-term termperatures of interglacial periods. The warm period we are in is the longest. And the temps drop very far and very quickly when they do.

And all the SUVs in the world won't make a damn bit of difference.

[Islander7]

"We're witnessing something unlike anything we've seen in 100 years," said David Hathaway of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Wow! 100 years of observations of a 4.5 billion year old star. These guys should have it all figured out by now.

[Fractal Trader]

ping

[fwdude]

Typically, a few stormy years... Then a few years of quiet, and then back to the bad behavior. But an extremely long stretch of low activity in recent years has scientists baffled and scrambling for better forecasting models.

Perhaps our sun is finally out of it's adolescent years?

[Parley Baer]

“But an extremely long stretch of low activity in recent years has scientists baffled and scrambling for better forecasting models.”

The solution is quite simple. Al Gore’s people have a good handle on forecasting so all they need to do is get in touch with Al. sarc

[dragnet2]

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