The Sun Remains Quiet
Submitted by climaterealists on Tue, 20/10/2009 - 13:49
Extract from an email on the Climate Realists' Network:
The sun has been toally blank again for several days.Last week there were two tiny sunspots that quickly disappeared again. Astronomers are getting worried about the behavious of the sun.
The prominent and well-respected Dutch astronomer, Professor (em) C. de Jager, has written several articles about the sun. He has his own website (www.cdejager.com). In the July-August issue of the popular-scientific Dutch magazine he wrote an article titled Doodstille zon ( The Dead-quiet Sun). I translated the summary-conclusions at the end of his article:
We recently predicted that the next maximum (of the number of sunspots) won’t come before 2014, with a low maximum sunspot number: 68. The coming sunspot curve would then look like the one of 1830. However, seen the recent measurements, it is possible that the maximum will come even later and that it could be even weaker than we predicted. In that case the chance is great that we can expect a Dalton Minimum in one or two suncycles time, as was the case in 1830.
The more data become available, the more it becomes clear how extreme the present behaviour of the sun is: no sunspots are visible, only some dark pores without any structure. Also, the intensity of the solar wind is now at a lower level than ever measured. Therefore, the possibility can not be excluded at all that during this century we could experience a Grand Minimum of the Maunder type.
Note: The Maunder Minimum was the coldest period of the Little Ice Age.
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