No Sunspots in August
September 10th, 2008 | by Sqotty |For those of you missed it, last week marked a milestone in solar activity: No sunspots for the entire month of August. According to an article on Daily Tech, this is the first time this has happened since 1913.
The sun has reached a milestone not seen for nearly 100 years: an entire month has 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.
The solar cycle, specifically sunspots, controls solar flares and the Sun’s magnetic field, which in turn influences the solar wind and, consequently, the amount of cosmic radiation that impacts the Earth’s atmosphere. These all combine to have, in this case, a cooling effect on the Earth’s climate.
Backtracking on spaceweather.com, I fund that the last sunspot was observed on July 20th. That is now seven weeks ago. Not sure what milestone that sets, but it looks as though the trend will continue. Also of interest is that solar activity has been trending down for the past year or so.
All of this may explain why we’re experiencing an abnormally cool September. Monday it was 40 degrees out when I took Tasha out for her morning stroll, and that was at 7 AM. This morning it was 50 degrees, a bit warmer, but still abnormally cool for this time of year.
Interesting enough, the Old Farmers Almanac is predicting a cooler year and asserts that “global cooling” may well be underway.
Meanwhile, no sign of the Boracle in the news when it comes to “global warming” hysteria.
Tags:
Tags: Climate Change, Global Warming, Sunspots
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