Tag Archives: Wolf number

December solar activity in a big slump

Posted on January 9, 2013 by

The December data from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center is in, and it looks more and more like the peak of solar cycle 24 has been reached, and that we are now past it. Even with documented problems like “sunspot … Continue reading →

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Posted in Solar | Tagged , , , | 202 Comments

Counting Sunspots and Sunspot Inflation

Posted on January 4, 2013 by

Guest post by Dr. Leif Svalgaard The official sunspot number is issued by SIDC in Brussels http://sidc.be/sunspot-data/ . The [relative] sunspot number was introduced by Rudolf Wolf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Wolf  in the middle of the 19th century. He called it the ‘relative’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Solar | Tagged , , , , | 205 Comments

Solar Activity – Past, Present, Future

Posted on November 11, 2012 by

Essay/paper by Dr. Leif Svalgaard Abstract As our civilization depends increasingly on space-borne assets and on a delicate and vulnerable earth-bound infrastructure, solar activity and its potential impact becomes of increasing importance and relevance. In his famous paper on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Solar | Tagged , , , , , , , | 207 Comments

Paper demonstrates solar activity was at a grand maximum in the late 20th century

Posted on September 13, 2012 by

Solar activity measured by isotope proxies revealed the end of 20th century was the highest activity in 1200 years A 2010 paper (that I somehow missed) was recently highlighted by the blog The Hockey Schtick and I thought it worth … Continue reading →

Posted in Solar | Tagged , , , , , | 99 Comments

A quiet cue ball sun

Posted on June 24, 2012 by

Source: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_4096_4500.jpg A couple of people have noticed (as did I) that the sun is essentially blank.

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged , , , , , , , | 110 Comments

NASA June 2012 Solar Cycle 24 Prediction

Posted on June 8, 2012 by

Compiled by Joe D’aleo WeatherBell via NASA MSFC The current prediction for Sunspot Cycle 24 gives a smoothed sunspot number maximum of about 60 in the Spring of 2013. We are currently over three years into Cycle 24. The current … Continue reading →

Posted in Solar, Spaceweather | Tagged , , , , , , , | 83 Comments

Solar cycle update for April – sun still slumping

Posted on May 10, 2012 by

Got a bit sidetracked earlier in the month, this is overdue for an update. Earlier we reported that Hathaway had updated his solar cycle prediction saying “…the predicted size makes this the smallest sunspot cycle in about 100 years. “. … Continue reading →

Posted in Solar | Tagged , , , , , , , | 77 Comments

NASA/Hathaway’s updated solar cycle prediction – smallest in 100 years

Posted on May 2, 2012 by

…the predicted size makes this the smallest sunspot cycle in about 100 years (Updated 2012/05/01) From: http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml The current prediction for Sunspot Cycle 24 gives a smoothed sunspot number maximum of about 60 in the Spring of 2013. We are … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Solar | Tagged , , , , , , | 134 Comments

The sun is still in a funk: sunspot numbers are dropping when they should be rising

Posted on March 2, 2012 by

The sunspot number for February from SIDC is down again, to 33.1 Here’s the source of that data: http://sidc.oma.be/DATA/monthssn.dat So far, cycle 24 is significantly lower in SSN number that the last three cycles, in addition to having a delayed … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Solar | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 137 Comments

Hathaway’s November Solar Prediction

Posted on November 6, 2011 by

By David Archibald Joe D’Aleo asked for my comments on NASA’s James Hathaway’s latest solar prediction, available here: http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml When I read May 2013 for solar cycle maximum, I thought “That is my prediction”. But then at the bottom of … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Solar | Tagged , , , , | 125 Comments

The smallest sunspot cycle in two hundred years

Posted on April 9, 2011 by

I missed this earlier this week from NASA, I got a bit distracted with other things. Sixty two – that’s the new number from Hathaway on April 4th, have a look:

Posted in Science, Solar | Tagged , , , | 92 Comments

The minimal solar activity in 2008–2009 and its implications for long‐term climate modeling

Posted on March 19, 2011 by

This is a new paper in Geophysical Research Letters by C. J. Schrijver, W. C. Livingston, T. N. Woods, and R. A. Mewaldt. WUWT readers may recognize Livingston as the creator of one of the datasets we regularly follow graphically … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmic rays, Science, Solar | Tagged , , , , , , | 204 Comments