Sunspot update: Sunspots in January went through the roof!
NOAA this week updated its monthly graph that tracks the number of sunspots on the Sun’s Earth-facing hemisphere. Below is that updated graph, with January’s numbers added to the timeline. As I have done monthly for the past dozen years here on Behind the Black, I have added some additional details to that graph to provide context.
Just as in December, the number of sunspots in January 2023 shot up to the highest amount since September 2014, which was during the previous solar maximum. Unlike December, however, January’s numbers came only a hairs-breath from topping that 2014 number. In fact, except for that one 2014 month, January 2023 saw the most sunspots on the Sun since November 2002, twenty years ago. In 2002 the Sun was ramping down from what had been a relatively strong double-peaked solar maximum, and was about to begin an extremely long period of little or no activity, followed by a very weak double-peaked solar maximum in 2013.
That period of little activity also corresponded with a long twenty-year period in which the Earth’s climate appeared to stop warming.
The graph above has been modified to show the predictions of the solar science community for the previous solar maximum. The green curves show the community’s two original predictions from April 2007 for the previous maximum, with half the scientists predicting a very strong maximum and half predicting a weak one. The blue curve is their revised May 2009 prediction. The red curve is the new prediction, first posted by NOAA in April 2020.
These very high January numbers, continuing the high numbers since the beginning of the ramp up from solar minimum in 2020, point almost certainly now to an upcoming strong solar maximum, in utter contradiction to the consensus prediction of NOAA’s panel of solar scientists, as indicated by the red curve. Instead, the high sunspot count continues to suggest that the outlier prediction of a high solar maximum by a handful of dissenting solar scientists will turn out right.
Based on extensive circumstantial climate and solar data, expect the Earth’s climate to show some evidence of warming in the next few years. Just as little activity during the past twenty years corresponded with no global warming, high activity has for centuries been linked to warmer Earth temperatures.
Sadly, the scientists who gather the climate data have corrupted it to convince the world that human-caused global warming is happening, so we will not get a clear signal of the Sun’s impact on climate change. These scientists have tampered with the past data to consistently lower those numbers so that they could strengthen their prediction that the climate is warming.
Thus, the climate now might really be warming — because of the Sun’s behavior — but we won’t be able to know exactly how much, because the earlier data is no longer accurate or trustworthy.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.
NOAA this week updated its monthly graph that tracks the number of sunspots on the Sun’s Earth-facing hemisphere. Below is that updated graph, with January’s numbers added to the timeline. As I have done monthly for the past dozen years here on Behind the Black, I have added some additional details to that graph to provide context.
Just as in December, the number of sunspots in January 2023 shot up to the highest amount since September 2014, which was during the previous solar maximum. Unlike December, however, January’s numbers came only a hairs-breath from topping that 2014 number. In fact, except for that one 2014 month, January 2023 saw the most sunspots on the Sun since November 2002, twenty years ago. In 2002 the Sun was ramping down from what had been a relatively strong double-peaked solar maximum, and was about to begin an extremely long period of little or no activity, followed by a very weak double-peaked solar maximum in 2013.
That period of little activity also corresponded with a long twenty-year period in which the Earth’s climate appeared to stop warming.
The graph above has been modified to show the predictions of the solar science community for the previous solar maximum. The green curves show the community’s two original predictions from April 2007 for the previous maximum, with half the scientists predicting a very strong maximum and half predicting a weak one. The blue curve is their revised May 2009 prediction. The red curve is the new prediction, first posted by NOAA in April 2020.
These very high January numbers, continuing the high numbers since the beginning of the ramp up from solar minimum in 2020, point almost certainly now to an upcoming strong solar maximum, in utter contradiction to the consensus prediction of NOAA’s panel of solar scientists, as indicated by the red curve. Instead, the high sunspot count continues to suggest that the outlier prediction of a high solar maximum by a handful of dissenting solar scientists will turn out right.
Based on extensive circumstantial climate and solar data, expect the Earth’s climate to show some evidence of warming in the next few years. Just as little activity during the past twenty years corresponded with no global warming, high activity has for centuries been linked to warmer Earth temperatures.
Sadly, the scientists who gather the climate data have corrupted it to convince the world that human-caused global warming is happening, so we will not get a clear signal of the Sun’s impact on climate change. These scientists have tampered with the past data to consistently lower those numbers so that they could strengthen their prediction that the climate is warming.
Thus, the climate now might really be warming — because of the Sun’s behavior — but we won’t be able to know exactly how much, because the earlier data is no longer accurate or trustworthy.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.
Thanks for this.. I’ve also been watching solar output, for many years now.. Unfortunately it seems it’s still a “wait and see” situation. The big question is, what part does the Sun play in the “warming” discussion. Hopefully over time (solar cycles) this will be known. Thanks again.
I, too, am skeptical of the data which seem to have been corrupted. Scientist are no longer deemed trustworthy (IMHO)
According to my UTILITY BILLS the earth is not warming much! I do know that the last couple of summers have been not as hot as the previous. Same thing happened LAST DECADE! Odd that it seems to follow the sunspot activity! Why can’t we just tell the leftist doomsayers who PROFIT from their corruption to just SHUT UP and NO FUNDING?? Cut off the money and see where it goes!