solar activity, the end is nigh

[nicnac]

just been scouting through this post laid down by the telegraph,

Nasa warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation - Telegraph

have any of our members noticed a difference in solar activity?

and be warned all those who have GOTO!!

[Starman]

I don't think there's anything out of the ordinary predicted, just a warning that the next solar maximum, the peak of the 22-year cycle, will occur with an Earth reliant on technologies which could be very unbalanced by severe activity. This would have happened in the past but it's effects on us wouldn't have been as potentially disruptive as they could be now.

Having said this, predictions for the next solar maximum have been for severe storms and for a relatively quiet maximum. The quiet maximum isn't as newsworthy of course.

[mark7331]

Funny that. In april the BBC ran a story where "scientists said" that we wer'e half way through a Maunder Minimuim which lasts 100 years. Where the suns activity declines quite rapidly - it's a pattern in which the usual 11 year cycle exists.

BBC News - Low solar activity link to cold UK winters

Still if "scientists say" what do I know...

[Capricorn]

we were half way through a Maunder Minimuim which lasts 100 years.

How does anyone reckon we are half way through?

There was a large amount of solar activity back in 2002.

I stood looking at it.

Now 2010 - 2002 = 8 as I recall and half way through a cycle that lasts 100 years should be 50 years.

Seems basic arithmetic has gone out the window.

What is a few years in the life of the sun, it's been around for 4,500,000,000 years (+- 500,000,000) so far and it seems that what could simply be a 5-10 year spell of quiet is massive.

[mark7331]

Yes we're 50 years into the minimum. We still have the 11 year cycle within it so you can expect peaks and troughs but the lows will be lower and the peaks less intensive.

It's a wave within a wave so your maths is a little more complex