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. “. April solar index numbers seem to support this prediction.
All three main solar indexes tracked by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center are down in April.
First the sunspot number, down slightly.
Solar radio flux, down slightly, almost unchanged.
The solar geomagnetic field continues to try to get jump started, down 5 units since March.
Related articles
- The sun is still in a funk: sunspot numbers are dropping when they should be rising (wattsupwiththat.com)
- NASA/Hathaway’s updated solar cycle prediction – smallest in 100 years (wattsupwiththat.com)
- Geomagnetic data reveal unusual nature of recent solar minimum (wattsupwiththat.com)
- Solar Update March 2012 (wattsupwiththat.com)
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Hi Henry
If there is a sun-Earth connection then mid 1990s appear to be an important marker,
in1996 the Siberian side of the Earth’s magnetic field for first time, in the available records 1600-2012 , became stronger than the Canadian (note inverted scale).
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/NFC1.htm
vukcevic says
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/05/10/solar-cycle-update-for-april-sun-still-slumping/#comment-984124
Henry says
a change in magnetic field strength from one area to the other could have a significant influence on weather and weather patterns,
and past 1996 is certainly where we see a general decline in global temps.
However, in that case, if maxima were dropping due to “more” weather (i.e. more clouds)
one would expect to find increasing humidity, not a global decrease of the %RH.
I have to think about this a bit.