What would happen to global warming if the sun quit producing sunspots for a few decades?
The question is of more than passing interest to climate scientists as they ponder the prospect that the sun may be about to enter such a period.
The coming flip of the sun’s magnetic field in a few months marks the peak of the current sunspot cycle – one that has produced the fewest sunspots in at least 100 years, and perhaps the last 200 years.
Peering at trends – or in some cases, the lack of them – in the sun’s behavior during the run-up to the current cycle’s peak, some solar physicists increasingly are considering the possibility that the sun may be on the verge of a “grand solar minimum,” comparable to a 70-year period running from the early 17th century into the early 18th century, when the sun produced no sunspots…
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The Delinquent Teenager
Climate Ponderings 