Starship Asterisk*

The solar cycle runs it's course over an 11 year period, Solar Minimum to solar minimum. We are at the end of the last Minimum cycle right now so there have been 9 other minimum valleys in the last century and 10 since 1900. I would think that even 1 out of 10 noted observations in the last century "Unusual" could be an accurate term to use in this case.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/36764/title/Lowdown_on_the_sun

ScienceNews
Lowdown on the sun
By Ron Cowen
Web edition : Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

The solar wind is at its lowest in 50 years, and the unusually long lasting solar minimum offers hints about the wind’s origin.

[quote]Every 11 years, the sun gets the doldrums. Solar storms are fewer and the strength of the solar wind, the stream of charged particles blown from the sun, declines. But new spacecraft observations have now gotten the true lowdown: [b]The current solar minimum is the lowest — and one of the longest — recorded in the past 50 years, since modern measurements began[/b].

This period of low solar activity has already lasted six months longer than the last solar minimum, which was in 1994 and 1995.[/quote]

[quote="zwiglm"]

For how long does the sun exist?
For how long does humanity exist?
For how long does humanity observe the sun?

For me - as a layman - a quite strange thing to say, that such a period is quite unusual ;-)

Still, a great picture :-)[/quote]

- Dear Martin, I hope that my paper "ORIGIN of the SUN and PLANETS" [url]http://bourabai.kz/solar-e.htm[/url] will be interesting for you.
I will try to answer for your questions.
sincerely yours,
Karim

[quote]"Why has the Sun been so quiet recently? No one is sure."[/quote]

- Why no one is sure?
In continuation of works of my countryman Prof. A.L. Tchizhevski and prominent German physicist T. Landscheidt I tryed to state my vision of solar dynamics in paper "Real Solar Dynamics" [url]http://bourabai.kz/sunfusion-e.htm[/url].

When [[b]Q[/b]]uasi[[b]B[/b]]ienniel[[b]O[/b]]scillation equatorial 30mb. stratospheric winds are westerly
. (i.e., in {Venus like} superrotation) as it has been
. during the even years of the 21st century...
[list]Positive westerly QBO equatorial 30mb [i.e. [b]30/hPa[/b]] winds):
---------------------------------------
[img]http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat-trop/gif_files/time_pres_UGRD_ANOM_ALL_EQ_2008.gif[/img]

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat-trop/gif_files/time_pres_UGRD_ANOM_ALL_EQ_2006.gif
.............................................
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat-trop/gif_files/time_pres_UGRD_ANOM_ALL_EQ_2004.gif
.............................................
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat-trop/gif_files/time_pres_UGRD_ANOM_ALL_EQ_2002.gif
---------------------------------------[/list]...the polar nighttime stratospheric Antarctic vortex is generally quite
[b] stable and, hence, relatively unaffected by sunlight induced ozone destruction.[/b]

This made for [b]A LATE START for the Antarctic ozone hole as in 2002, 2004, 2006 & 2008[/b]:
[img]http://www.temis.nl/protocols/o3hole2/sc-o3area220.gif[/img]
____________________________
---------------------------------------

However, solar activity has a big (~7º C) UV heating effect on [b]destabilizing 1mb. stratopause temperatures[/b]:[list]---------------------------------------
Solar minimum (normal 1mb. stratopause temperatures):

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat-trop/gif_files/time_pres_TEMP_ANOM_ALL_EQ_2008.gif

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat-trop/gif_files/time_pres_TEMP_ANOM_ALL_EQ_2006.gif
.............................................
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat-trop/gif_files/time_pres_TEMP_ANOM_ALL_EQ_2004.gif
.............................................

Solar maximum (warm [b]1mb[/b] stratopause temperatures):
[img]http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat-trop/gif_files/time_pres_TEMP_ANOM_ALL_EQ_2002.gif[/img]
---------------------------------------[/list]which in turn has a big effect on the stability of the [b]springtime [October] Antarctic polar vortex[/b]...

with the [b]solar MAX[/b] year of 2002 causing a very early Antarctic ozone hole breakup
while the [b]solar MIN[/b] year of 2006 created a large stable springtime Antarctic ozone hole (despite reduced CFC levels).
[Moderate solar active 2004 lies in between these two.]

[img]http://www.temis.nl/protocols/o3hole2/sc-o3area220.gif[/img]

The next QBO westerly equatorial 30mb. stratospheric wind situation won't be until 2010 or 2011 by which time a destabilizing solar max will have returned.

And the next stabilizing solar minimum won't be until ~2017 by which time harmful CFC should be down significantly.
-------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Hence the 2008 Antartic Ozone Hole should be the LAST of the big stable springtime Antarctic ozone holes.[/b] :D

[quote="zwiglm"][quote="APOD"]...for over a year now, and such a period of relative calm is quite unusual...[/quote]
For me - as a layman - a quite strange thing to say, that such a period is quite unusual[/quote]
[quote="APOD"]...our Sun is in a transitional period between [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle]solar cycles[/url] called a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_minimum]Solar Minimum[/url], where solar activity has historically been reduced. The stark lack of surface tumult is unusual even during a [url=http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/06mar_solarminimum.html]Solar Minimum[/url], however, and activity this low has not been seen for many decades...[/quote]

link. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080924.html

Orin

Perhaps your explanatory text could give some direct scale anecdote - in pix of our Sun, a mention of how big our Earth is in the scale being shown.

In larger fields, maybe a mention of our Solar System, or our Galaxy, or our Local Cluster.

Just an idea.

Aleyes

PS Humans will always be upset with how slow computers are ... the only fast computer I ever saw was a PDP-8E - eight hundred thousand clock cycles per second, with twelve bit operands!

>....for over a year now, and such a period of relative calm is quite
> unusual...

For how long does the sun exist?
For how long does humanity exist?
For how long does humanity observe the sun?

For me - as a layman - a quite strange thing to say, that such a period is quite unusual ;-)

Still, a great picture :-)