New Maunder Minimum?

[skye at night]

I know there has been a lot of discussion on this....

NASA - Are Sunspots Disappearing?

But we now really are overdue in coming out of the 'trough' and the studies indicate 'a downward trend' in the strength of sunspot magnetic fields overall...

Interesting data relating to solar activity and volcanic activity on Earth in connection with surface temp. and Global temperature trends....

Not good for you solar observers out there! (although I suppose inactivity is still activity of a sort and of interest.

(or maybe al of us in the longer term)

My personal interest is more in the bi-product of high solar activity....

Being a relatively high latitude dweller in UK terms, I am used to the occasional bit of 'light in the sky'.. However this year (and last if I recall) there has been NO notable visual Auroral activity ....

So not so good for me either....

I suppose it has been easy in the past to record data with what means there were and 'suppose' a cycle of 11 years or so...

with technology now here on earth and closer to the sun (solar telescopes/observatories) maybe we are just unraveling a far more complex and variable set of cycles...

and maybe cycles within cycles much like there were with the Ice Ages...

Steve

NASA - Are Sunspots Disappearing?

[jabeoo1]

Interesting that over 4 years after the above post by skye at night we have a report here very much showing signs of a new Maunder Minimum.  This is a fascinating drifting trend of the 11 year sun cycle. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25743806

Frost on the Thames?

[mjpfc]

With Metal skates and Gortex underwear, you youngsters would'nt know a proper maunder minimum.

I still have my dodo-bill skates from the last one, And a hundred and twelve observing logs with empty circles drawn in them.

Times were tough then aye.

Seriously through, even my rudimentary Solar records (drawings etc) tell a tale suspiciously like Solar decline from The last Maximum to this

and including the extraordinary minimum. I know the professionals have been discussing since the minimum "are we/are'nt we"?

It is revealing itself slowly of course but it looks like evidence for the MM case is begining to stack up.

The Solar disc has been very active for the last week and a bit, but these things have been short lived, and long quiet gaps have seperated

the busier times. Also, overrall, the largest compound Umbrae have been smaller too.

Must get some mittens.....

[Uplooker]

I get exactly what you are both saying. It is very hard to know what the true situation is, primarily because nature works on such extraordinarily long timescales and we humans on very short ones. there is certainly more and more evidence to back up what you have both said. All I can really say is - "we will just have to wait and see, nothing we can do about it". But that is a strange thing in its self. If we do have another Maunder minimum, which may cause the Thames to freeze over for 2 months, how does this affect the apparent rise in the planets temperature due to "global warming" which man may or may not have caused (do not want to be contentious!!!)

Ian

[Ags]

Global warming always becomes a heated topic, ha ha, so don't go there!

[dick_dangerous]

If it's a new Maunder Minimum, then environmentalists like me may find ourselves in the paradoxical situation where we're encouraging people to burn more fossil fuels!

Actually, this is sounding very much like the plot of Sunshine... call Cillian Murphy!

DD

[cantab]

I called it several years, though more in jest than honest expectation, back when I was active in ham radio. That's what'll really get ruined by a long solar minimum, with the consequence of hardly any ionosphere.