Still Quiet on the Sunspot Front
Blog posted by Mark Paquette
As Brett had mentioned in a recent article, sunspot activity continues to be nearly non-existent, actually, it is non-existent as can be seen from the picture below. That got me wondering... Is this completely unusual? Is something strange going on here?
According to this article, what is occurring is completely natural, as Dr. Sean Oughton, an associate professor of Mathematics at New Zealand's Waikato University (what is he doing commenting on sunspots?) says ""What we are experiencing is a very deep solar minimum, but it is still completely within the bounds of what is normal."
I, a novice about the subject of sunspots and how its affects our climate, am intrigued by how "quiet" the sun has been. How much longer does the sun need to be "quiet" before we start to wonder if something is going on here that is not "normal?" I am just beginning to understand how the lack of solar activity affects our climate, and I wonder if and when will see any climate changes due to how the lack of sunspots and solar activity?
