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"All Quiet Alert" Issued For the Sun

Posted by kdawson on from the that-would-fix-global-warming dept.

radioweather writes "The phrase sounds like an oxymoron, and maybe it is, but the sun is extremely quiet right now, so much in fact that the Solar Influences Data Center in Belgium issued an unusual 'All quiet alert' on October 5th. Since then the sunspot number has remained at zero — solar cycle 24 has not yet started. There are signs that the sun's activity is slowing. The solar wind has been decreasing in speed, and this is yet another indicator of a slowing in the sun's magnetic dynamo. There is talk of an extended solar minimum occurring. There are a number of theories and a couple of dozen predictions about the intensity solar cycle 24 which has yet to start. One paper by Penn & Livingstonin in 2006 concludes: 'If [trends] continue to decrease at the current rate then the number of sunspots in the next solar cycle (cycle 24) would be reduced by roughly half, and there would be very few sunspots visible on the disk during cycle 25.' We'll know more in about six months what the sun decides to do for cycle 24."

10 of 463 comments (clear)

  1. Obviously by CodeMunch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obviously this is due to global warming on Earth caused by humans.

  2. Quick! Alert the scientific community! by winkydink · · Score: 5, Funny

    And get Al Gore on the phone, now!

    We must take immediate and drastic steps to fight Global Darkening!

    Maybe we can get that Kim Stanley Robinson person to write a book? 70 Days of Night?

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  3. Layman's terms? by iceyone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can someone explain what this means to us in laymans terms? I'm just a software geek. I know nothing of this "sun" you speak of.

    1. Re:Layman's terms? by Salsaman · · Score: 4, Funny

      You know the really big room with the green floor and the blue ceiling ? The "sun" is apparently the big light in it that gets switched off at night.

  4. Re:Quick! Alert the scientific community! by winkydink · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, I am drawing a link between the article and humor. Try and keep up.

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  5. Re:That's the Maunder Minimum by HarvardAce · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, uh... are we or aren't we all going to die? I think it's pretty safe to say that we're all going to die, although statistics would indicate it probably won't be from sunspots.
    --
    Note to self: Stop putting jokes in my insightful comments so I can get something other than +1 Funny!
  6. Re:Sunspot numbers by Surt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Technically, only the global warming believers can persist in their claims in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
    The other side would be dead.

    --
    "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
  7. Re:Oh really? by spun · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't anthropomorphize climate change either. It really hates that.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  8. try to keep on its good side by tabby · · Score: 5, Funny

    "what the sun decides to do "

    Please stop anthromorphising astonomical bodies. It just makes them angry.

    --
    I've experiments to run, there is research to be done on the people who are still alive.
  9. Re:That's the Maunder Minimum by localman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Statistically, less than half the humans who have been born have died. So chances are you'll live forever.

    This message brought to you by the Society for the Brutal Abuse of Misleading Statistics.