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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Are sunspots changing and will that take us to an Ice Age? Kirtland Griffin The answer to the title question is really, nobody knows. But there are some indications that the sunspot activity is not only reduced but has also changed in ways that may indicate a further reduction of the sunspots including having none. First a little note on the status of the major scientific societies in the US. What do these two disparate facts have to do with each other? Let's see. I had been familiar with the American Physical Society for the past year or two through my association with Larry Gould, Professor of Physics at the University of Hartford. It seems that the leadership of the APS was quite convinced that the IPCC-Al Gore position was right on, but several of the members disagreed. Well that has come to a boil and 70 scientists have called for the removal of the alarmist editor-in-chief of their society publication. They also called for a change in their official position on Climate Change to a more scientific statement, not the alrmist position so commonly heard today that man is responsible, period. As a side note, several of the IPCC members are in the APS. Should be interesting. Almost simultaneously, members of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest, has asked for the removal of their Editor and to "trade him to the New York Times or the Washington Post" Wow! Harsh words! Accordring to a report from Climate Depot by Marc Morano. "The June 22, 2009 editorial in Chemical and Engineering News by editor in chief Rudy Baum, is facing widespread blowback and condemnation from American Chemical Society member scientists. Baum concluded his editorial by stating that "deniers" are attempting to "derail meaningful efforts to respond to global climate change." Apparently Baum was "startled" by the condemnation. This has been typical of professional societies over the past several years and members, fearing for their reputation, have been reluctant to protest. By doing this, en masse, they apparently have found strength in numbers. The tide is turning folks and this is just the beginning. Another professional group that had come to my attention through my association with the Friends of Science out of Canada, and more specifically, Albert Jacobs, a retired geologist, is the American Geophysical Union. They too were staunch defenders of the IPCC position. Despite a strong bias in that direction, there was an article that appeared recently in their professional publication, EOS, that departed from their Climate Change position. It was entitled, "Are Sunspots Different During This Sunspot Minimum?" According to the authors, Livingston and Penn, the answer is a resounding yes! The caption below two photographs of sunspots, one group from 2003 and one very recent read, "The (2003) sunspots clearly show a dark central umbra surrounded by a brighter, filamentary penumbra. The magnetic fields range from 1797 to 3422 gauss. (right) An image consisting only of pores—weak sunspots with no penumbral structure—taken from the Michaelson Doppler Imager (MDI) instrument on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft on 11 January 2009; this is an example of what is observed today at solar minimum. The lower pore (seen as the dot in the center of the black circle) had a magnetic field of 1969 gauss; the others were not measurable". In short, they look different and they are different. The key here is that regardless of the relation to the sunspot cycles, magnetic intensity in sunspots is decreasing. With 690 spotless days so far in this minimum as of June of this year, that is hardly outside of the range of previous minimums but it ain't over and there is no sign it will be anytime soon. The characteristics of the sunspots are unusual and don't look good to this interested lay person. Is this a lead in to a Maunder Minimum type Little Ice Age or is this the beginning of the big one? Time will tell. The big story here is not the characteristics of sunspots changing but rather the changing tenor of the professional scientific community to stand up for true scientific debate that has been suppressed for so long. Far too long, in my opinion. Will you be able to tell your great-grandchildren that you remember liquid water on the surface of the Earth in winter and weren't dead set on cooling the planet?
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#1. To: farmfriend (#0)
Sunspot numbers for July 23-29 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0 with a mean of 0.
I take that spotless sun picture I post off of Solar Cycle 24. It is actually a NASA picture and I think it is real time.
I just love the part of the report "0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0 with a mean of 0."
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