Blog: Is the Sun Taking a Holiday?

Is the Sun Taking a Holiday?
Ken Jorgensen

On June 14, the National Solar Observatory reported here. "A missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles say that our Sun is heading for a rest period even as it is acting up for the first time in years, according to scientists at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)." No less than three independent studies reached the same conclusion: the sun is evolving into a quiet period.

Quiet periods on the sun correlate with cool and very cold periods in earth's history. The most recent period of very low sunspot activity (low solar activity) is called the Maunder Minimum, a 70 year period of few or no sunspots from 1645 through 1715. This also happened to be about the mid-point of the Little Ice Age which ended in about 1850.

The connection between Earth's climate the solar activity as indicated by the solar wind is this: when the solar wind is weak, more galactic cosmic rays enter the inner solar system, crash into Earth's atmosphere, create ionized particles in the lower atmosphere which attract water molecules and eventually form clouds. Low altitude cloud cover cools the climate and has been shown to be correlated with the flux of cosmic rays. It is discussed in a fine article by Nir J. Shaviv here. Since a cool climate is the opposite of what Al Gore and the IPCC predicted, I wonder what they'll have to say if it comes to pass. Do you think they'd admit that the life giving sun warms and cools our climate?

Let us all celebrate this Fourth of July like never before because our liberty is precious, we love this country and we wish we had a President and certain Senators and Representatives who share that love.