Re: [TECH]:: The sun has gone out - still

Latest from "Space Weather" below.
They say that 2008's "no spots for 73% of the time" was a 95 year low, but
they don't say what no spots for 87% of the time is.
Maintaining a rolling year comparison may be interestinf.


  Russell

_________________

Space Weather News for April 2, 2009
http://spaceweather.com

SPOTLESS SUNS:  Yesterday, NASA announced that the sun has plunged into the
deepest solar minimum in nearly a century.  Sunspots have all but vanished
and consequently the sun has become very quiet. In 2008, the sun had no
spots 73% of the time, a 95-year low. In 2009, sunspots are even more
scarce, with the "spotless rate" jumping to 87%.  We are currently
experiencing a stretch of 25 continuous days uninterrupted by sunspots--and
there's no end in sight.

This is a big event, but it is not unprecedented. Similarly deep solar
minima were common in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, and each time
the sun recovered with a fairly robust solar maximum.  That's probably what
will happen in the present case, although no one can say for sure. This is
the first deep solar minimum of the Space Age, and the first one we have
been able to observe using modern technology.  Is it like others of the
past?  Or does this solar minimum have its own unique characteristics that
we will discover for the first time as the cycle unfolds?  These questions
are at the cutting edge of solar physics.

You can monitor the progress of solar minimum with a new "Spotless Days
Counter" on spaceweather.com.  Instead of counting sunspots, we're counting
no sunspots.  Daily updated totals tell you how many spotless days there
have been in a row, in this year, and in the entire solar cycle.
Comparisons to historical benchmarks put it all in perspective.  Visit
http://spaceweather.com for data.


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