The sun continues its ramp down
On Monday NOAA posted its monthly update of the solar cycle, showing the sunspot activity for the Sun in June. As I do every month, I am posting it here, below the fold, with annotations to give it context.
The decline in sunspots continued for the fourth month in a row, increasing the likelihood that the peak of solar maximum has finally come and gone and that we now seeing the beginning of the ramp down to solar minimum. This resulting solar maximum comes close to matching the science community’s final prediction (indicated by the red line), though that prediction was not detailed enough to include the distinct and unusual double peak for this maximum.
The graph above has been modified to show the predictions of the solar science community. The green curves show the community’s two original predictions from April 2007, with half the scientists predicting a very strong maximum and half predicting a weak one. The red curve is their revised May 2009 prediction.
The sunspots we are seeing now are mostly in the southern hemisphere and close to the equator, further indications that the Sun’s magnetic field in the southern hemisphere has mostly completed its flip in polarity, another sign that the solar maximum is ending. As noted previously, this flip has already occurred in the northern hemisphere.
The big questions now are what will happen next: Will the next solar minimum be as prolonged as the last? Will there be a solar maximum that follows? Or will the Sun enter a Grand Minimum, with no sunspots for decades?
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So that would mean there is less of a solar magnetic field and that would cause more cosmic rays to fall upon the earth which would cause more cloud cover in the atmosphere and in turn cause the climate to cool.
Where does that leave CO2?
Is CO2 following temperature or leading temperature? It will be interesting to see in real time the effects of cosmic rays on the climate.
Q: When will the solar cycle begin to pick up which will cause an increased solar magnetic field and begin to block the cosmic rays which will cause fewer clouds in the atmosphere which will cause the climate to warm?
And it begins?
http://www.local2.ca/ssm/viewarticle.php?id=15416
You wrote:
Be aware that this idea is not yet proven. It is only a theory, which some evidence from CERN seems to support. However, even the scientists who gathered that evidence admit that the result is very preliminary (an admission that demonstrates they are good scientists).
As for CO2, the geological record is very clear: CO2 increases have always followed climate temperature increases, which of course strongly suggests that it wasn’t the CO2 that was causing the temperature changes.
A 2009 paper on Cosmic Rays (great graphics) and cloud formation and a 20014 article that says that it has been dis-proven that Cosmic Rays have little if any effects.
http://indico.cern.ch/event/52576/material/slides/0
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/science/2014/06/29/cosmic-rays-dont-affect-cloud-making-data-show.html
Humm.
The jury is still out on this theory, despite what was written in your second link.