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The sun's tumult waxes and wanes in a fairly predictable cycle, with sunspots, patches of intense magnetic activity on the solar surface, peaking in number every 11 or so years. We currently find ourselves in a solar minimum, a period of reduced solar activity, and a deep one at that. Last year was the second-quietest sunspot year of the past century, as the sun was blank on 72.7 percent of the days.

But this year is on pace to be even quieter—through the first three months of 2009 the sun was blank on 86.7 percent of the days. The continued lull in solar activity is mostly good, as the sun can wreak havoc on satellites and infrastructure during its more rambunctious stretches, as we've chronicled in the past.

In the grand scheme of things, though, the sun has probably endured much calmer stretches in its billions of years of existence. In fact, according to NASA, deep solar minima were common until relatively recently—this quiet period will have to persist another year to match the doldrums of 1901 and 1913. The difference this time is that space agencies have a slew of solar-observing satellites ready to observe the sun in a deep slumber. By the time the next solar minimum rolls around in a decade or so, there could be a new member of that fleet: NASA and the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft, which would observe the sun from an orbit about one-fourth the distance separating Earth from the sun, may launch as early as 2015.

Photo of today's quiet sun courtesy of SOHO, NASA/ESA

4 Comments

1. 1. Curmudgeon 05:39 PM 4/11/09

   And the predicted impact on climate change is...?

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2. 2. eddierleram 10:52 AM 10/19/09

   The sunspots come in pairs above and below the equatorial belt. From what I've seen in articles, such as NG July,2004 on P. 19 there are whirling big weather fronts with lines of light blue between lines of dark blue, each of which slope up and to the left on their paths to the polar rotational axis point. So... would not those be the solar dynamo units; of which the count would show as 16 dynamos, with each of the loops of magnetics circling out and through the upper corona. If that is accepted as true, and as all of those parts are buried in either liquid-like ionized plasma or in tenuous IP in the corona, then the negative magnetics of the loops would be magnetically coated with the conductive positive energied protons; and would therefore be magnetic field line (MFL) conductors of electromagnetic energy (EM).
   
   With those systems as facts, then the white spots called 'Upper Latitude Small Cyclonic Storms' would be the bases for the mysterious and short lived; in minutes; Spicules. Spicules would be a whirling tapered collimated stream with the momentary ability to punch through the mysterious magnetic cap of the chromosphere and to transport compressed and very hot proton gasses into the lower corona. From there the short lived spicule's lifetime has demised to release the very, very hot gasses into the lower corona as mushrooming clouds of 'Celestial Moss.
   So... with that as true, then one has answered where and what is the Sun's dynamo, why is the chromosphere almost twice as hot as is the photosphere, what are and what are the tasks of spicules, what holds the gasses in the chromosphere, what causes the extreme temperature to the lower corona and also suppllies several more answers to the mysteries of our star, and which answers several top science officials would give their left arms for the acts of receiving that information.
   
   The above question and answer article was supplied by the arm collector; Eddie R. of BC, Canada's Shuswap area.

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3. 3. eddierleram 11:15 AM 10/19/09

   The sunspots come in pairs above and below the equatorial belt. From what I've seen in articles, such as NG July,2004 on P. 19 there are whirling big weather fronts with lines of light blue between lines of dark blue, each of which slope up and to the left on their paths to the polar rotational axis point. So... would not those be the solar dynamo units; of which the count would show as 16 dynamos, with each of the loops of magnetics circling out and through the upper corona. If that is accepted as true, and as all of those parts are buried in either liquid-like ionized plasma or in tenuous IP in the corona, then the negative magnetics of the loops would be magnetically coated with the conductive positive energied protons; and would therefore be magnetic field line (MFL) conductors of electromagnetic energy (EM).
   
   With those systems as facts, then the white spots called 'Upper Latitude Small Cyclonic Storms' would be the bases for the mysterious and short lived; in minutes; Spicules. Spicules would be a whirling tapered collimated stream with the momentary ability to punch through the mysterious magnetic cap of the chromosphere and to transport compressed and very hot proton gasses into the lower corona. From there the short lived spicule's lifetime has demised to release the very, very hot gasses into the lower corona as mushrooming clouds of 'Celestial Moss.
   So... with that as true, then one has answered where and what is the Sun's dynamo, why is the chromosphere almost twice as hot as is the photosphere, what are and what are the tasks of spicules, what holds the gasses in the chromosphere, what causes the extreme temperature to the lower corona and also suppllies several more answers to the mysteries of our star, and which answers several top science officials would give their left arms for the acts of receiving that information.
   
   The above question and answer article was supplied by the arm collector; Eddie R. of BC, Canada's Shuswap area.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

4. 4. eddierleram 11:19 AM 10/19/09

   The sunspots come in pairs above and below the equatorial belt. From what I've seen in articles, such as NG July,2004 on P. 19 there are whirling big weather fronts with lines of light blue between lines of dark blue, each of which slope up and to the left on their paths to the polar rotational axis point. So... would not those be the solar dynamo units; of which the count would show as 16 dynamos, with each of the loops of magnetics circling out and through the upper corona. If that is accepted as true, and as all of those parts are buried in either liquid-like ionized plasma or in tenuous IP in the corona, then the negative magnetics of the loops would be magnetically coated with the conductive positive energied protons; and would therefore be magnetic field line (MFL) conductors of electromagnetic energy (EM).
   
   With those systems as facts, then the white spots called 'Upper Latitude Small Cyclonic Storms' would be the bases for the mysterious and short lived; in minutes; Spicules. Spicules would be a whirling tapered collimated stream with the momentary ability to punch through the mysterious magnetic cap of the chromosphere and to transport compressed and very hot proton gasses into the lower corona. From there the short lived spicule's lifetime has demised to release the very, very hot gasses into the lower corona as mushrooming clouds of 'Celestial Moss.
   So... with that as true, then one has answered where and what is the Sun's dynamo, why is the chromosphere almost twice as hot as is the photosphere, what are and what are the tasks of spicules, what holds the gasses in the chromosphere, what causes the extreme temperature to the lower corona and also suppllies several more answers to the mysteries of our star, and which answers several top science officials would give their left arms for the acts of receiving that information.
   
   The above question and answer article was supplied by the arm collector; Eddie R. of BC, Canada's Shuswap area.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this