NASA | Solar Cycle

The number of sunspots increases and decreases over time in a regular, approximately 11-year cycle, called the sunspot cycle. The exact length of the cycle can vary. It has been as short as eight years and as long as fourteen, but the number of sunspots always increases over time, and then returns to low again.

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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• scott wiessinger
• nasa
• nasa goddard
• sun
• solar
• solar cycle
• space
• heliophysics
• helioseismology sunspot
• cycle
• cme
• minimum
• maximum

[fdex]

sun is our Duracell ...

[enriqueDFTL]

Awesome. O_O

[MichaelCox]

Any idea what mechanism drives this periodic alternation in the sun's magnetic poles? Is the suns' core radiation from the actual fusion process convected assymetrically or in a polar manner? (If it were polar, maybe this drives overall convection and causes the pole change?)

[TheJatmikoo]

Amazing

[wstevenschneider]

Since b101aa2 wishes me to stop replying to him, I shall honour that request. I'd like to leave some links to Bad Astronomy's discussion on solar variation which I think are relevant to this video.

The Sun may be headed for a little quiet time

tinyurl com/6dppgok

Are we headed for a new ice age?

tinyurl com/5w24883

[b101aa2]

@wstevenschneider and btw... did you get the memo that the #2 guy at ipcc quit because he got tired of the fraud and fake global warming reports... he quit, and joined the non cronie scientific community. you shoudl check the actual facts before believing fraud, like the himalayan glacier subject, in which the scientist conducting those studies was "disgusted" by the ipcc stealing his data and making up fake reports that turned out to be lies.. in his owns words i might add. now by zealot..

[b101aa2]

@wstevenschneider sorry, i am not talking over one or two days... fixation, it was really hot during september so it must be global warming... der for those short bus agw zealots... it's called the sun had multi large's cme's and flares, even a class x in the middle of it.

conspiracy theories? only conspiracy is the agw movement that disregards science and refuses ALL data to be input or considered, while at the same time believing in fraudulent reports. please, stop commenting me...

[wstevenschneider]

@b101aa2

C) A few cold spells don't a trend make. Even with record cold spells here and there, the observed trend shows warming. Ppl tend to fixate on records too much, hot and cold. It's the trends that matter.

D) I'm not arguing on that point and was already working on it.

Look, conspiracy theories aside (which are ungrounded btw), nobody wants AGW to be true. You need to provide verifiable evidence that AGW is false if you want the scientific community to agree with you.

[wstevenschneider]

@b101aa2

A) SRSLY? So all astrophysicists, biologists, paleontologists, etc who aren't saying the earth is cooling, or reject AGW are part of the conspiracy? This includes gov't officials and civilians who support the science of AGW as well? Kind of a ridiculous claim, don't you think?

B) SMF strength correlates w/sunspots and other solar attrib's. However, there are two major players in climate. The sun is one, co2 is the other.

[b101aa2]

@wstevenschneider A; peer reviewed. You mean government paid peer reviewed only, and supported by the fraudulent agency, ipcc that lies about everything they touch, and admitted they fakes the carbon and global warming topics, but are trying to advance that now anyways. B: The magnetic fields control most of the weather patterns... Hence, climate change.. The entire subject actually. C: Cooling trends, haven't noticed record cold spells have ya? D: Might want to learn up on solar cosmology.

[wstevenschneider]

@b101aa2 @b101aa2 "i think you need to get yourself an education."

What makes you think I'm not? More presumptions?

"...which (weakening magnetic field) throws off weather patterns for the entire planet by immense margins"

But there should be a detectable cooling trend, no?

From your words such as "cultists" and "zealot" I see that you feel strongly negative about AGW. I suggest you consider that before you reject the verified, peer-reviewed evidence.

[b101aa2]

@wstevenschneider i think you need to get yourself an education. you do not know much in these subjects. there is a combination of many factors you have ignored, such as the magnetic poles are rapidly shifting since the earths magnetic field is much less then 15 years ago, which throws off weather patterns for the entire planet by immense margins (hence, debunking the global warming cultists), and in combination with the weakening of the sun's magnetic field and other solar events... ya, der..