Still no sunspots...

[silverpig]

Every once in a while I like to check out spaceweather.com to see what's going on above us. It seems as though the sun is still unusually quiet, and there still aren't any sunspots.

Normally the sun has an 11 year cycle of maximums and minimums in sunspot activity. We hit a minimum back in summer of '08 and were supposed to start seeing sunspots again at that time, but they still haven't shown themselves.

This phenomenon has happened in the past a few times where the sun has just gone quiet for a few cycles. Each time there has been a mini ice-age with longer, colder winters.

edit: Little update

A LITTLE SOLAR ACTIVITY: The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in almost 100 years. At such a calm time, even a little solar activity is remarkable. Here it is. SOHO recorded the movie on March 16th; it shows a minor CME billowing away from the sun's eastern limb. When the sun is active, we see several such CMEs on a daily basis. Now, the rate is about one per month. That's very little solar activity.

April 1 update:

NO SUNSPOTS: As April begins, the sun has been spotless for 24 consecutive days. How long can the blank spell continue? The longest stretch of blank suns in the past 100 years was 92 days in April, May and June of 1913. To match that streak, today's sun must remain spotless until early June 2009. That's a lot of quiet; stay tuned!

April 9 update:

slashdot has a story about this now too

"The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower. The year 2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73 percent). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days. 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 percent)..."

 

[Kalvin00]

Christ I hope so.

I'd like to see more snow here.

 

[DrawninwarD]

Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Christ I hope so.

I'd like to see more snow here.

No more snow. We've had enough here.

 

[Cattlegod]

any relation to this:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2286425&enterthread=y

 

[MovingTarget]

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
any relation to this:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2286425&enterthread=y

Earth: Some like it hot.
Anti-GW crowd: We don't need no water, let the m*****f***** burn.

Sun: No spots for you!

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
any relation to this:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2286425&enterthread=y

I guess it is related, but it was not an inspiration for this thread. I've always been curious about the effect sunspots have on our climate and think that the next 30-40 years are going to be pretty cold because of them.

It'll certainly throw the global warming debate a curveball.

 

[WHAMPOM]

Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Christ I hope so.

I'd like to see more snow here.

You may have heard the expression, "Too cold to snow"? You need warm, moist fronts to bring on the snow.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: silverpig
Every once in a while I like to check out spaceweather.com to see what's going on above us. It seems as though the sun is still unusually quiet, and there still aren't any sunspots.

Normally the sun has an 11 year cycle of maximums and minimums in sunspot activity. We hit a minimum back in summer of '08 and were supposed to start seeing sunspots again at that time, but they still haven't shown themselves.

This phenomenon has happened in the past a few times where the sun has just gone quiet for a few cycles. Each time there has been a mini ice-age with longer, colder winters.

This is why I moved to Maui

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: WHAMPOM

Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Christ I hope so.

I'd like to see more snow here.

You may have heard the expression, "Too cold to snow"? You need warm, moist fronts to bring on the snow.

Mmmm, warm, moist fronts...........



Sorry, my mind wandered. What?

Originally posted by: silverpig
I guess it is related, but it was not an inspiration for this thread. I've always been curious about the effect sunspots have on our climate and think that the next 30-40 years are going to be pretty cold because of them.

It'll certainly throw the global warming debate a curveball.

Too bad we lack long-term climate data on the other planets - it'd be handy to have several other tracks of data points.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: WHAMPOM

Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Christ I hope so.

I'd like to see more snow here.

You may have heard the expression, "Too cold to snow"? You need warm, moist fronts to bring on the snow.

Mmmm, warm, moist fronts...........



Sorry, my mind wandered. What?

Originally posted by: silverpig
I guess it is related, but it was not an inspiration for this thread. I've always been curious about the effect sunspots have on our climate and think that the next 30-40 years are going to be pretty cold because of them.

It'll certainly throw the global warming debate a curveball.

Too bad we lack long-term climate data on the other planets - it'd be handy to have several other tracks of data points.

Well that's the thing. There are many other forces which drive climate, so a change on a scale of 30-40 years could be from anything.

 

[eplebnista]

Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Christ I hope so.

I'd like to see more snow here.

ditto

 

[Unheard]

No sunspots make amateur radio ops ANGRY!

Signed:
KJ4CTS

 

[ViviTheMage]

more snow!!

 

[silverpig]

updated op

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Originally posted by: silverpig
Every once in a while I like to check out spaceweather.com to see what's going on above us. It seems as though the sun is still unusually quiet, and there still aren't any sunspots.

Normally the sun has an 11 year cycle of maximums and minimums in sunspot activity. We hit a minimum back in summer of '08 and were supposed to start seeing sunspots again at that time, but they still haven't shown themselves.

This phenomenon has happened in the past a few times where the sun has just gone quiet for a few cycles. Each time there has been a mini ice-age with longer, colder winters.

This is why I moved to Maui

Fuck you , Hula boy...

 

[CPA]

I blame it on SUVs.

 

[Anubis]

the sun is saving up for a Gamma-ray burst

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: Anubis
the sun is saving up for a Gamma-ray burst

this.

 

[JDub02]

oh noes!!! our carbon emissions are affecting the sun!! OMGWTFPOLARBEARS!!!!

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: JDub02
oh noes!!! our carbon emissions are affecting the sun!! OMGWTFPOLARBEARS!!!!

Didn't you hear? Al Gore invented the sun.

 

[destrekor]

Y2009:
3:16 - The Sun displays awakening ritual during otherwise continued deep slumber.

It warns...

Y2012:
The end of the 16th 3-week cycle nears, pushing forward into the final lunar cycle of the year.
A Solar Eclipse - totality oppresses a swath of the vast origin as the heavens begin their final dance rituals.
One remaining lunar cycle, though obscured are the arrival and departure.
Yet the Sun awaits the burning perihelion, days behind the full moon that now wanes with one last bow as relativity fades.

 

[silverpig]

Still nothing...

 

[DrawninwarD]

Originally posted by: silverpig
Still nothing...

You may find this an interesting read:

http://www.newscientist.com/ar...-rss&nsref=online-news

 

[Unheard]

Wake the F up.

 

[bobdole369]

Yeah this is a really weird start to this cycle. It's usually going well into the new cycle this far into it, but we are still getting old sunspots.

Can't wait to talk on 10 meters and even 6 meters around the world from my car.