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Sun Spot Cycle

September 3, 2008

Few people are aware that the sun has an eleven year cycle between low and peak sun spot activity, and a twenty two year one as well. More people are aware that the next peak will be the year 2012, because it’s 2012 of course. But a really, really rare record was set lat month that I bet hardly anyone but the scientists who study the sun are aware.

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Here’s the trivia question. What happened in August that has happened only two other times in the last 100 years of observing the sun?

Answer- The entire month of August passed without a single visible sunspot being noted.

The event is significant as many climatologists now believe solar magnetic activity – which determines the number of sunspots — is an influencing factor for climate on earth. And it IS! So, could we be in for global COOLING and not global warming? Or could this be the pendulum taking a really deep left hand track, before taking an even greater right hand move? The low sun spot peak for cycle #24 was 40% higher than average so many feel the peak in 2012 will be spectacularly high as well.

According to data from Mount Wilson Observatory, UCLA, more than an entire month has passed without a spot. The last time such an event occurred was June of 1913. Sunspot data has been collected since 1749. When the sun is active, it’s not uncommon to see sunspot numbers of 100 or more in a single month. Every 11 years, activity slows, and numbers briefly drop to near-zero. Normally sunspots return very quickly, as a new cycle begins.

But this year — which corresponds to the start of Solar Cycle 24 — has been extraordinarily long and quiet, with the first seven months averaging a sunspot number of only 3. August followed with none at all. The astonishing rapid drop of the past year has defied predictions, and caught nearly all astronomers by surprise.

WATCH OUT!

Written by Ernie · Filed Under 2012 

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