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From: LindyBill4/2/2009 5:28:13 AM
   of 793914
 
"Baby, it's cold outside."

Solar Minimum Hits Long Range Low

The Sun is at a 11 year low of a sunspot activity cycle. This cycle bottom is lower than typical for most of the last 100 years. Last time the Sun had fewer sunspots was 1913.

>>>April 1, 2009: The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower.

2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days: plot. Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008.

Maybe not. Sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of the year's 90 days (87%).

It adds up to one inescapable conclusion: "We're experiencing a very deep solar minimum," says solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

"This is the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century," agrees sunspot expert David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.<<<

Sometimes the Sun hits a minimum and stays there for an extended period of time. The Dalton Minimum from 1790 to 1830 and the Maunder Minimum from 1645 to 1715 each lasted for decades. The Maunder Minimum coincided with the coldest part of the Little Ice Age. Scientists have no way to predict when the Sun will go thru another extended period of low sun spots or whether we will suffer much colder weather as a consequence. So far we have no way to make accurate long term Sun weather forecasts.

futurepundit.com
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