One Thing Is Clear: Solar Minimum Is Here, and it’s one of the Deepest in a Century

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One thing is clear!

Solar Minimum is here, and it’s one of the deepest in a century!

solar cycle update solar minimum mini ice-age
A M1-class solar flare on May 29, 2020–the strongest flare in three years. Credit: NASA/SDO

NOAA has released a new interactive tool to explore the solar cycle, which lets you scroll back through time, comparing sunspot counts now to peaks and valleys of the past.

One thing is clear. Solar Minimum is here, and it’s one of the deepest in a century.

solar cycle update solar minimum mini ice-age
Click to explore almost 300 years of sunspot counts. NOAA

Solar minimum

Solar Minimum is a natural part of the solar cycle. Every ~11 years, the sun transitions from high to low activity and back again. Solar Maximum. Solar Minimum. Repeat.

The cycle was discovered in 1843 by Samuel Heinrich Schwabe, who noticed the pattern after counting sunspots for 17 years. We are now exiting Solar Cycle 24 and entering Solar Cycle 25.

During Solar Minimum, the sun is usually blank, meaning without sunspots. The solar disk often looks like a big orange billiard ball:

solar cycle update solar minimum mini ice-age
The spotless sun on July 14, 2020. Credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory

2019-2020 a century-class Solar Minimum

In 2019, the sun went 281 days without sunspots, and 2020 is producing spotless suns at about the same rate.

To find a year with fewer sunspots, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days.

This makes 2019-2020 a century-class Solar Minimum; solar flares are rare, geomagnetic storms are almost non-existent, and Earth’s upper atmosphere is cooling.

Mini-ice age ahead?

Some people worry that the sun could “get stuck” in Solar Minimum, producing a mini-Ice Age caused by low solar activity. According to scientists, there is no evidence this is happening. On the contrary, the next solar cycle (Solar Cycle 25) is showing unmistakable signs of life.

On May 29th, the sun unleashed the strongest solar flare in years–an M1-class eruption that just missed Earth. The blast came from an active region belonging to Solar Cycle 25.

Observers are also seeing a growing number of Solar Cycle 25 sunspots. So far in 2020, the sun has produced a dozen sunspots. Nine of them (75%) have the magnetic polarity of Solar Cycle 25. This compares to only 17% in 2019 and 0% in 2018. The sun is clearly tipping from one solar cycle to the next.

A NOAA-led panel of experts actually predicted this behaviour. Last year they said that Solar Minimum would hit rock bottom sometime in late 2019-early 2020. Activity would then quicken in 2021-22, ramping up to a new Solar Maximum in 2023-26.

I do think scientists forget the anomalous snow storms and snow quantities that have accumulated in less than 3 weeks of winter in the Andes, among other extreme weather events.

So let’s wait 3-5 more years. Then we will know if those scientists were right or if we are still stuck in the current mini ice-age.

More solar minimum and mini ice age news on Strange Sounds and Steve QuayleNow if you are looking for supplements to increase your healthy lifestyle please shop Natural Health Source. Thank you for your support! [Spaceweather]

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3 Comments

  1. Acording to an episode of Nasa’s unexplained files on Discovery Science channel, majore construction on a massive scale is throwing the earth off balance. All of that steal and concreet in China and Asia maybe the couse. The North pole is sifting East ward at an icredible rate. Could this be linked to global warming and ifso, why is Australia cetting colder? This would siem to indecate that Earth’s crust is slipping around it’s access. Ore west cost is slowly drifting South and someday Wasington state will be expeaiancing tropical weather like southern California and Mexico. Mexic would then have a climated much like Brazil and Rio.

  2. OH,seems the LIEING WHORES AT NASA AND NOAH are not telling you a few things,THE SOLAR CYCLE HAS TO DO WITH THE ORBIT OF JUPITER..think about it,and NO ice age is coming,another lie by satans minions…NIBIRU IS COMING and its going to catch all of you with your pants around your ankles..

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