Over the past few years, sunspot activity has gone down while CO2, well, hasn't. Result: A slowdown in temperature increases (if not a decrease). What will happen if sunspot activity goes up? We might be about to find out.
2009 is ending with a flurry of sunspots. Indeed, if sunspot 1039 holds together for the rest of today (prediction: it will), the month of December will accumulate a total of 22 spotted days and the final tally for the year will look like this:
The dark line is a linear least-squares fit to the data. If the trend continues exactly as shown (prediction: it won't), sunspots will become a non-stop daily occurance no later than February 2011. Blank suns would cease and solar minimum would be over.If the past two years have taught us anything, however, it is that the sun can be tricky and unpredictable. Stay tuned for surprises.
via spaceweather.com
