The Sun is Asleep

[Mencken_Fan]

As it's one of the variables in weather I thought it notable (especially at this stage in the cycle) that the sun is dead asleep. This lack of activity has become quite noticeable over the last two years and I can't help wonder if something hasn't gone awry.

I have this odd mental image of all the Whos in Whoville yelling at the sun trying to wake it up.

http://sohowww.nasco...me/mdi_igr/512/

Cold winter enhancement?

[Jebman]

If low numbers of sunspots correlate with cold winters, then we are in BIZNASS!!!

[ayuud]

If low numbers of sunspots correlate with cold winters, then we are in BIZNASS!!!

did you get that snow you were wishing for?

[aslkahuna]

It's actually quite normal behavior for the Sun if by normal you include ALL aspects of Solar activity over the past couple of thousand years or so and by including I mean such grand maxima as the Medieval one and the very deep minima such as the Spörer, Maunder and Dalton-the latter of which we seemed to be headed for a repeat of after our recent high maximum. This is what we are discussing in the Climate Change section since an extended period of low Solar activity could have impacts on climate trends.

Steve

[stormitecture]

I guess I picked a good time to get out of ham radio....well except that prices are down on selling my gear. ARRGGG. Oh well.

To folks really think the sun has a noticeable affect on the planet. I would think the solar / weather (globally) would be a bit obvious and not so debated. But I'm not really into it that much either. Solar cycle certainly isn't affecting hurricane or tornado numbers.

[aslkahuna]

Well certainly with the 10.7 cm flux so low now (below 80 sfu) and the UV radiation and X-rays down as well the ionosphere certainly isn't going to have any high MUF values and the 6m band isn't going to do well either. However 2m and 70 cm should still work okay. Not good conditions for DXing which I liked to do for a long time-used to get all my news from the overseas broadcasts you learn a lot more about what's really happeing when you do.

Steve

[A-L-E-X]

Well certainly with the 10.7 cm flux so low now (below 80 sfu) and the UV radiation and X-rays down as well the ionosphere certainly isn't going to have any high MUF values and the 6m band isn't going to do well either. However 2m and 70 cm should still work okay. Not good conditions for DXing which I liked to do for a long time-used to get all my news from the overseas broadcasts you learn a lot more about what's really happeing when you do.

Steve

Steve, there is a story on the NASA site about a tremendous hemisphere encompassing solar magnetic storm being underway-- have you read it?

[A-L-E-X]

I guess I picked a good time to get out of ham radio....well except that prices are down on selling my gear. ARRGGG. Oh well.

To folks really think the sun has a noticeable affect on the planet. I would think the solar / weather (globally) would be a bit obvious and not so debated. But I'm not really into it that much either. Solar cycle certainly isn't affecting hurricane or tornado numbers.

The sun does have more than a noticeable affect on the planet. Just imagine where we would be if it disappeared

Also a slight variability to the sun could be the difference between life and extinction. As is the case with all stars, the sun has a limited lifespan, but life on earth will be impossible long before it goes red giant, because of brightness variability, which will start happening sooner than its transition off the main sequence.

[aslkahuna]

The sun does have more than a noticeable affect on the planet. Just imagine where we would be if it disappeared

Also a slight variability to the sun could be the difference between life and extinction. As is the case with all stars, the sun has a limited lifespan, but life on earth will be impossible long before it goes red giant, because of brightness variability, which will start happening sooner than its transition off the main sequence.

Yes. Most popular articles say that we have 4.5 more billion years but in reality, the Sun is slowly getting brighter as it uses up the hydrogen in its core and will move up the main sequence a short distance before (going from G2v to G0 or maybe F9)leaving it and in 500 million years will be up to 1.5 times brighter than now and hence conditions here will be unbearable. Incidentally that's how we know that one of the stars in the α Centauri system is older than the Sun for it's brighter than a star of close to 1 Solar mass should be if it was the same age.

Steve

[BethesdaWX]

Hasn't the sun dimmed over the past many million years? I know it will expand and burn us.....but why wold it get brighter?

[LakeEffectKing]

Hasn't the sun dimmed over the past many million years? I know it will expand and burn us.....but why wold it get brighter?

I know this is quite out of the box thinking, but somehow (if intelligence on this planet doesn't get wiped out by "something else") we will be so far advanced in technology, that slowly adjusting our planet to an outer orbit, will be as easy as turning down the thermostat in your home...I don't see the death of our planet being gobbbled up by the Sun.

[aslkahuna]

Hasn't the sun dimmed over the past many million years? I know it will expand and burn us.....but why wold it get brighter?

Actually, the Sun brightened by about 30% when it moved onto the main sequence which has brought up the issue as to why the Earth was warm throughout (current thinking is that we had a greenhouse atmosphere then). As it burns hydrogen in the core, it slowly expands at first before leaving the main sequence. In 500 million years the Sun will be larger and although the per unit area surface brightness may not change much, the larger area that's shining will mean an overall brighter Sun.

[Snow Wizard]

Well certainly with the 10.7 cm flux so low now (below 80 sfu) and the UV radiation and X-rays down as well the ionosphere certainly isn't going to have any high MUF values and the 6m band isn't going to do well either. However 2m and 70 cm should still work okay. Not good conditions for DXing which I liked to do for a long time-used to get all my news from the overseas broadcasts you learn a lot more about what's really happeing when you do.

Steve

Very interesting to note the 10.7 cm flux has not risen this entire year. In fact it's lower now than it was in January.

[aslkahuna]

Very interesting to note the 10.7 cm flux has not risen this entire year. In fact it's lower now than it was in January.

That could be another indicator that the upcoming max may be a minimax. A flux of 78 sfu is certainly low even for this phase of the cycle and in fact, we should be seeing the first of the big sunspots groups about now.

Steve

[stormitecture]

The sun does have more than a noticeable affect on the planet. Just imagine where we would be if it disappeared

Ooops...well yeah...obviously. But these scales of changes "they" are speaking of in terms of having a drastic affect to the degree that it seems a hollywood movie was more on their minds than reality. I don't enough to dispute it, but I am familiar enough to say I can be skeptical (reasonably even...maybe).

[A-L-E-X]

I know this is quite out of the box thinking, but somehow (if intelligence on this planet doesn't get wiped out by "something else") we will be so far advanced in technology, that slowly adjusting our planet to an outer orbit, will be as easy as turning down the thermostat in your home...I don't see the death of our planet being gobbbled up by the Sun.

This can be done, and hopefully even more-- we will have expanded into the galaxy. 500 million years is an immense amount of time even in terms of biological evolution (let alone technological evolution) and Im sure we'll have long distance space travel figured out long before then

[A-L-E-X]

Actually, the Sun brightened by about 30% when it moved onto the main sequence which has brought up the issue as to why the Earth was warm throughout (current thinking is that we had a greenhouse atmosphere then). As it burns hydrogen in the core, it slowly expands at first before leaving the main sequence. In 500 million years the Sun will be larger and although the per unit area surface brightness may not change much, the larger area that's shining will mean an overall brighter Sun.

Wasnt the reason we had such giant insects and reptiles roaming about back then because of a higher quantity of oxygen in the Atmosphere, Steve?

Also, what do you think of the NASA article about a magnetic storm of immense scope that covers half the sun? It was on NASA's site the other day.

[A-L-E-X]

Ooops...well yeah...obviously. But these scales of changes "they" are speaking of in terms of having a drastic affect to the degree that it seems a hollywood movie was more on their minds than reality. I don't enough to dispute it, but I am familiar enough to say I can be skeptical (reasonably even...maybe).

Yeah the end of tomorrow or whatever they call them movies are pretty much just for publicity. If it could make life on earth that unstable we wouldnt be here right now as it would have already probably happened multiple times in, lets say, the past few billion years lol. I do however believe in climate change due to precession of the equinoxes, variations in the earth's orbit over time, variation in atmospheric content of oxygen and other gases, etc.

A crashing asteroid or comet on the other hand......

[JBG]

As it's one of the variables in weather I thought it notable (especially at this stage in the cycle) that the sun is dead asleep. This lack of activity has become quite noticeable over the last two years and I can't help wonder if something hasn't gone awry.

I have this odd mental image of all the Whos in Whoville yelling at the sun trying to wake it up.

http://sohowww.nasco...me/mdi_igr/512/

Cold winter enhancement?

Maybe the end of global warming?

[aslkahuna]

Wasnt the reason we had such giant insects and reptiles roaming about back then because of a higher quantity of oxygen in the Atmosphere, Steve?

Also, what do you think of the NASA article about a magnetic storm of immense scope that covers half the sun? It was on NASA's site the other day.

To answer the first-the Earth's atmosphere was originally oxygen poor. Oxygen (which was poisonous to the then existing life forms) did not appear in quantity in our atmosphere until modern type plants with their CO₂»O₂ photosynthesis appeared. S&T had an article about the early atmospheres of Earth last August.

The NASA article dealt with a DSF event that triggered a series of sympathetic events that covered a large portion of the Sun last August.

Steve