posted July 13, 2015 03:23 PM            

Professor Valentina Zharkova, of the University of Northumbria, presented the findings at the National Astronomy Meeting in Wales this week, Britain's Independent reported Saturday.

Researchers, saying they understand solar cycles better than ever, predict that the sun's normal activity will decrease by 60 percent around 2030 -- triggering the "mini ice age" that could last for a decade. The last time the Earth was hit by such a lull in solar activity happened 300 years ago, during the Maunder Minimum, which lasted from 1645 to 1715.

Scientists say there are magnetic waves in the sun's interior that fluctuate between the body's northern and southern hemispheres, resulting in various solar conditions over a period of 10 to 12 years. Based on that data, researchers say they are now better able to anticipate the sun's activity -- which has led to the Zharkova team's prediction.

"Combining both [magnetic] waves together and comparing to real data for the current solar cycle, we found that our predictions showed an accuracy of 97 percent," Zharkova said.

posted July 14, 2015 07:40 AM            

Not by fire but by ice!

posted July 14, 2015 01:15 PM            

that is, if this projection is correct. It could just as easily be another fossil industry funded decoy. And if you don't believe a host of scientists why would just one brief study be so believable? Could it be what you prefer to hear?

The one thing that is pretty much guaranteed is that there will be believers and deniers and nothing will get done.

posted July 14, 2015 01:40 PM            

Though University of Northumbria mathematics professor Valentina Zharkova, who led the sunspot research, did find that the magnetic waves that produce sunspots (which are associated with high levels of solar activity) are expected to counteract one another in an unusual way in the coming years, the press release about her research mentions nothing about how that will affect the Earth’s climate. Zharkova never even used the phrase “mini ice age.” Meanwhile, several other recent studies of a possible solar minimum have concluded that whatever climate effects the phenomenon may have will be dwarfed by the warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

Besides, that “Little Ice Age” that occurred during the Maunder minimum, it wasn’t so much a global ice age as a cold spell in Europe, and it may have been caused more by clouds of ash from volcanic eruptions than by fluctuations in solar activity.

posted July 14, 2015 02:08 PM            

Yeah, all that warming...which hasn't happened in the last 18 years!

Got to love it when leftist loons talk about what's NOT HAPPENING as though it's reality.

Hottest year.....1936! Were greenhouse gasses, specifically CO2, a lower percentage of atmospheric gasses in 1936 than today? Yes they were!!!