Solar cycle gives us the lowest-power Sun in over eighty years.
There's a lot floating around the discussion space right now in terms of CO2 emissons, gases and the general warming of Earth thanks to our intervention, but what hasn't been made completely clear in popular media is that the Sun is actually entering a very low power phase.
The Sun has a cycle of roughly eleven years, through which it will travel from a high energy output phase to a relatively sedate phase, currently residing in the upward sloping level heading towards a peak energy.
What is strange about this latest cycle is that the peak is looking to be much lower than previous cycles; hitting a large number of sunspots every day that limit the amount of energy that will be available to hit Earth.
While this reduced energy doesn't mean that we're headed for an ice age per se, it does suggest that weather may be milder here on Earth for the remainder of the cycle - but thanks to the increased amount of sunspots our radio transmissions may be affected.
A sunspot is essentially a vast area of magnetic activity on the surface of the Sun, which reduces the normal convection and prevents temperatures from rising to the usual levels, resulting in lower energy hitting Earth.
It's quiet for now, but there's nothing to say that the emissions won't spike again, and we'll simply have to wait and see.
Until then jump over to the info at New Scientist, via io9.com.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012