'Quiet Sun' baffling astronomers

Last year, it was expected that it would have been hotting up after a quiet spell. But instead it hit a 50-year year low in solar wind pressure, a 55-year low in radio emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity.

Story here:
news.bbc.co.uk...

Is this the quiet before the storm??

What kind of storm would be expected then.

What would you assume would happen in the solar maximum?

reply to post by Republican08


It's a cycle..the sun takes about 11 years to go from one solar maximum to another and 22 years to complete a full cycle (where the magnetic charge on the poles is the same).

The period of rising activity was due to begin but we see absolutly no activity what so ever and that is what is puzzling.....

The last solar maximum was in 2001, and the next one should be sometime in 2012. On March 10, 2006 NASA researchers announced that the next cycle would be the strongest since the historic maximum in 1958 in which the northern lights could be seen as far south as Rome, approximately 42° north of the equator.

Peace

reply to post by operation mindcrime

As the linked BBC article states clearly, this is not a predicted phase of the solar activity cycle (we're less than two years from the peak) but the effect of a longer-term decline from a peak in 1987. No scientific explanation has yet gained general acceptance.

Read the links! Read the links!