See Spot Run

Tuesday, 18 November 2008 by bbbeard.

The big news we’ve all been tracking this summer and fall, of course, is the disconcerting lack of sunspots. This is correlated BTW with a dramatic drop in solar wind pressure.

But now it looks like Cycle 24 might finally be starting:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/07nov_signsoflife.htm

A concern has nagged the climatology community that the fluctuation in solar activity represented by Cycle 23 has contributed to the muting of the global warming signal, at least relative to the GCMs employed by the modelers. It will be interesting to see if Cycle 24 does continue the recent trend of less active solar disturbances, and whether there is a correlation with cooler climatology on Earth. As always, correlation is not causation — but it’s food for thought and model fodder.

It might also be informative to hear the perspective from our Arctic Circle friends, who actually know something about solar physics. And about ice.

UPDATE: Nice big sunspot image from 12 Nov 2008 located here.

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