Changes to Sun Spots and the Effect

By: Pat Prescott
06/16/2011 01:54 PM ET

New research suggests, that the Sun is on the verge of changing its sun spots. They would change in a way that could significantly alter weather patterns for the long haul, on Earth. Three studies presented by scientists at a conference in Las Cruces. New Mexico yesterday predicts that sunspots are set to temporarily and unexpectedly vanish in coming years as part of a solar “hibernation” period that could last for decades.

What that would mean to us here on Earth, starts with possible global cooling. In which the Sun would go into an extended period of “solar minimum,” in which sunspot and solar flare activity would be diminished. The sun usually runs through an 11-year cycle during which sunspot activity waxes and wanes. The last solar “maximum”-the point at which upwards of hundreds of sunspots may be active on the sun’s surface-was back in 2000. The current peak is expected in early 2013, and it may be one of the weakest since 1928, though we’re kind of bad at predicting these things: NASA had previously suggested the cycle would peak between 2010 and 2012 and that it would be “the most intense solar maximum in fifty years.”

Now this does not mean we would be cast into a new Ice Age. Scientest are suggesting the cooling effect of a solar minimum that started now and ran all the way to 2100 would be as little as 0.3 degrees Celsius, and that’s at most. However, enough to still call it a global cool down.

Coincidently, it is predicted a greenhouse-gas-led warming there will be a trend of 2 to 4.5 degrees Celsius between now and the century’s end. So the cool down effect would not be nearly enough to offset the global warming prediction. Meantime scientists don’t know why the sun is going quiet. However, all the signs are there.