Although we’ve been covering this quiet sun issue for over a year on WUWT, the light bulb seems to have gone on for mainstream media right about now.
There is growing press coverage about the current state of the sun, most recently from Charles Osgood of CBS News as well as the BBC and other major outlets. While the sun slumbers deeper and has missed its cyclic snooze alarm, our media is finally waking up to the solar somnolence.
Here is a short roundup of news articles on this subject today:
‘Still Sun’ baffling astronomers
Scientists warn sun has dimmed
Sun ‘at its quietest for 100 years’
Has the sun gone in? Earth’s closest star ‘dimmest it’s been for a century’
So the question arises, now that this has been identified, what should we call it?
There have been some good ideas, such as naming it after Jack Eddy, who coined the phrase “Maunder Minimum“. There’s been some discussion of a “Gore Minimum”, but I don’t like the idea of giving Gore credit for something he has nothing to do with, or even likely understands. There’s been suggestion of “The Hansen Minimum” which makes a little more sense, since he’s an astronomer by training. On that note, Leif Svalgaard predicted this, so maybe it should be his honor.
So, I’ve decided to have a poll, and I’ll take suggestions for other names than what I’ve listed.
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How about the “Imaginary Minimum” because it just doesn’t fit with the computer models.
I voted for Svalgaard because it is only fair.
But if I was in a wistful mood I would want it to be called “The Mann-imum”
Gore minimum only really works if a real proof/mechanism of the sun being the major cause of global climate and temperature being identified.
Remember Al Gore is the public face of AGW, a hasbeen politician who with others has influenced the way climate science is conducted. If the sun is eventually proved to be the major climate driver the name AL Gore should be used as a warning to all who use unproven science to tell others how to live their lives.
Of course if there is no significant solar minimum it won’t be called anything
Initially call it the Mother of All Minimums. As a society we’re always proclaiming everything (people, places, gadgets, sporting events, headaches) to be the greatest/worst of all time, so if a solar minimum might occur during our lifetimes, it should be proclaimed ahead of time as the greatest ever. After a decade or so, we should get serious and give credit to Landscheidt by renaming the minimum as the Landscheidt Minimum. But, if the solar minimum results if chaos, mayhem, and global annihilation, then hopefully one of the last surviving humans will rename it The Last Known Minimum.
“Inconvenient Minimum”
It says it all.
The Beginnings of Sorrow.
Mike Bryant (13:18:09) Mu it is also a question in itself, hoping the disciple will find the unnameable truth within reality. So Mu?
George Tobin (12:52:20) :
Norwegian Blue Parrot Minimum — “it’s not dead, it’s resting” a la Monty Python:
Perfect!
Al Gore should be stricken from the list of possibilities
Heliogenic Minimum.
It may be the sun driving climate. It is certainly not man.
Willem (12:20:12) :
It seems perverse to name a developing solar minimum after those who deny the role of the Sun in climate I couldn’t agree more.
Svensmark minimum
It would be a great ending to a movie.
(1st to predict a future movie about the trials of Henrik Svensmark after 2010 to celebrate his victory of the Cern cloud chamber experiment.)
From the BBC article, a quote attributed to one Professor Lockwood of Southampton University…
“If you look carefully at the observations, it’s pretty clear that the underlying level of the Sun peaked at about 1985 and what we are seeing is a continuation of a downward trend (in solar activity) that’s been going on for a couple of decades.
“If the Sun’s dimming were to have a cooling effect, we’d have seen it by now.”
And the beat goes on…
Best suggestion here: Roger Knights’s Inconvenient Minimum.
A much better way of twisting Gore’s tail.
What about the Osama Bin Laden Minimum? Because he hates your Freedom and Way of Life and dimming the sun is a good way to change that… with the help of Hallah and American politicien that will surely do it in order to destroy your Empire and society.
The Melting Minimum.
The Gor Blimey
The Watts Waning!
Landscheidt Minimum
I’m with Cathy – the “Algore” Minimum. Not Gore, but AlGore. That way, it absolutely, positively, requires an explanation. It also fits his penchant for showing up at a conference or speaking engagement along with the coldest weather in a generation. It will help ensure that AlGore is the laughingstock he deserves to be, and will go a long way toward awakening the average American to the swindle that AlGore represents.
The “Inconvenient” Minimum. Inconvenient to the alarmists if it turns out, as we believe: “It’s the Sun, stupid!”
The “scare quotes” denote it will not actually be inconvenient to humanity if it helps global temperatures stabilize.
Well, as much as I respect Leif, he didn’t forecast a minimum, just a low sunspot cycle.
If this turns out to be a true minimum, I think real choice would be “Livingston and Penn Minimum.”
I say……. Anthropogenic Solar Cooling
After all, everything is our fault.
1 for landscheit-svaalgard minimum.
Leif preficted a minimum, but not a grand minimum. We only name the latter so it’s got to be the….
The Archibald Minimum