Calm Before The Sun Storm

What in the world, like from the sun, is going on? The year 2005, in the 23rd sun cycle, was supposed to be the minimum activity in the eleven year cycle; however, it turned out to be 40% higher. Thus Scientists were worried about what might happen in 2012 (yeah, that date). But as we've swung into the 24th cycle it appears that the sun has gone to sleep, or at least so far, has not awakened. The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days. Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008. Is there change afoot in the suns cycle? Sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of the year's 90 days (87%). It adds up to one inescapable conclusion: "We're experiencing a very deep solar minimum," says solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This is the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century," agrees sunspot expert David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. I don't know about you; however, I don't like ANY abnormalities as w approach 2012. A very quiet sun can have as many adverse effects as an active one with CME's (coronal mass ejections) galore. But, as a betting man, I simply intuit this as the "calm before the storm". Whatcha think? Quiet suns come along every 11 years or so. It's a natural part of the sunspot cycle, discovered by German astronomer Heinrich Schwabe in the mid-1800s. Sunspots are planet-sized islands of magnetism on the surface of the sun; they are sources of solar flares, coronal mass ejections and intense UV radiation. Plotting sunspot counts, Schwabe saw that peaks of solar activity were always followed by valleys of relative calm—a clockwork pattern that has held true for more than 200 years. The good news is that we're finally taking some interest in the sun which is our planet's LIFE!.

Author: Ernie Fitzpatrick

About the Author:
As a spiritual-futurist, I have a BA degree majoring in history. One cannot know the future without knowing the past which holds clues to what is on the horizon. The world is in such a rapid expansion of knowledge that we are close to entering a tipping point that will forever change earth as we know it.