Sun’s Bizarre Activity may Trigger Another Ice Age

sun-earth-180Latest data shows solar activity has been falling steadily since mid-1940s

By Dick Ahlstrom

The sun is acting bizarrely and scientists have no idea why. Solar activity is in gradual decline, a change from the norm which in the past triggered a 300-year-long mini ice age.

Three leading solar scientists presented the very latest data about the weakening solar activity at a teleconference yesterday in Boulder, Colorado, organised by the American Astronomical Society. It featured experts from Nasa, the High Altitude Observatory and the National Solar Observatory who described how solar activity, as measured by the formation of sunspots and by massive explosions on the sun’s surface, has been falling steadily since the mid-1940s.

The sun goes through a regular 11-year cycle with a maximum, when sunspot activity is at its peak, followed by a minimum when sunspot numbers are reduced and are smaller and less energetic. We are supposed to be at a peak of activity, at solar maximum.

Read the rest at the Irish Times.

7 Responses to Sun’s Bizarre Activity may Trigger Another Ice Age

  1. Neilio July 29, 2013 at 11:14 pm #

    So, let me get this straight. Diminished solar activity can alter the jet stream, and cause longer, colder winters? But, but, but, ah, I thought it was CO2! Oh wait, I bet it’s CO2 that’s causing diminished solar activity. Yeah, that’s it! How much you want to bet that someone is going to come out with a peer reviewed study saying that it’s our fault? I can make a computer model to show it as a fact!

  2. Rob N. Hood August 15, 2013 at 7:01 pm #

    Off your new and improved game there buddy. Rambling incoherence like the days of old. The following doesn’t address your muddy statement. Just food for thought.

    Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas that causes global warming and is more than twenty times more potent than CO2. Large amount of methane is stored in the Arctic—both terrestrial and subsea. It is released in two ways: when permafrost on land thaws from warming, the soil decomposes and gradually releases methane. In the seabed, methane is stored as a methane gas or hydrate, and is released when the subsea permafrost thaws from warming. The methane release from the seabed can be larger and more abrupt than through decomposition of the terrestrial permafrost.

  3. Michael Elliott August 28, 2013 at 6:41 pm #

    Hello, it does not matter if a warming earth should release the Methane in the Tundra, although as its slowly getting colder that seems very unlikely. But Methane then turns into CO2, and as CO2’s effect regarding a degree of warming is Logarithemic. That means that the effect gets less and less. So even doubling it will not cause any problems except that the plants will love it, and there will be far more food available for the always starving over population of the world.

    Its all a great big Con job, to make certain people a great deal of money. Lots of so called scientists who like a taxpayers funded life style, plus the politicians who guarantee that they will save you from certain death, just as long as you vote for them.

  4. Dave TH September 3, 2013 at 4:56 pm #

    Geez, Rob – Since Venus is shrouded in cloud and very hot, and Mars is cloudless and quite cold – Earth, with an active ecosystem of carbon cycling should be JUST RIGHT. However, to all you warmist ninnies THE FREAKIN’ SUN powers the whole system!! Driving a Prius won,t affect the SUN – and giving money to Al Gore sure won’t either… Whether it’s the Maunder Minimum or the Lesser Dryas, ole man climate sure gonna change – and CO2 footprints don’t mean a thing (except in the weak minds of the Obrainwashed)

  5. Robert September 21, 2013 at 12:47 am #

    Your informations are not accurate. The last major solar maximum was in the mid 1950s not 1940s. Since then it was not constantly diminished, only this last cycle.

    • Neilio September 21, 2013 at 6:19 am #

      Solar cycle 19 was the last solar maximum, but the one before that one, 18, was not a weak one. Cycle 18 was in the mid 40’s. If you look at a chart of solar cycles from solar cycle 18 to the present, and drew a smoothed line of average trend, it would show a decreasing line.
      I do grant that you are right, it was not constantly diminished, it has been variable.
      But I think that the point of the story is not diminished in light of this fact.

  6. keith meyerson September 23, 2013 at 10:01 am #

    science is not real..666

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