Longest blank sun since 2010
The sun has now been blank of sunspots for five days, the longest such stretch since 2010, during the last stages of the last solar minimum.
Nor is this blank stretch over. Though I have no doubt that sunspots will return to the Sun in the next few days, this sudden arrival of blank days suggests again that the solar maximum might be ending far sooner than presently predicted.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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The sun has now been blank of sunspots for five days, the longest such stretch since 2010, during the last stages of the last solar minimum.
Nor is this blank stretch over. Though I have no doubt that sunspots will return to the Sun in the next few days, this sudden arrival of blank days suggests again that the solar maximum might be ending far sooner than presently predicted.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Spots on the far side aren’t counted, right?
For purposes of determining sunspot numbers, yes, farside spots are not counted. This is simply to maintain a consistent counting system from before the space age, when there were no space probes capable of seeing the far side.
Do we currently have space probes to monitor the far side of the sun on a regular basis? My memory whether we launched such probes is vague.
We have a pair of satellites called Stereo specifically designed to see the entire face of the sun.
Update: I forgot to add that one of the two Stereo craft was lost in 2014, which makes it difficult to get complete coverage at this time.
So, if a sun spot can’t be seen then it doesn’t exist…
Willi: Of course not. As I said, they only count the spots on the near side because, until the space age, that was all they could see and count. In order to have the sunspot count remain consistent they use only the nearside spots in the count. However, in studying the sun and its solar cycle solar sciences absolutely do not ignore the far side. This is why the Stereo spacecraft were launched and built, to give sciences a 360 degree view of the sun.
I wasn’t being serious, just trying to play off “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it…”
Willi, read your second comment and knew exactly where you were going with it, humor not lost on all of us!
If the dark spots on the sun were dark matter…
Then they would exist even though no one has ever seen one :)
A news report today said “the ozone hole is smaller this year”. They’re giving the banning of CFCs the credit even though it’s always small during a solar decline. Someday they will connect the dots between ozone consumption and stratospheric clouds from solar activity.