SpaceWeather.com: Deep Solar Minimum Continues

SpaceWeather.com reports that the sunspot dearth continues; no sunspots have appeared for 22 continuous days.

NEW: Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 22 days
2009 total: 94 days (88%)
Since 2004: 605 days
Typical Solar Min: 485 days

Furthermore, we are within 70 days of breaking a recorded minimum set in 1913. How long will this minimum extend? Your guess is as good as mine but even the NASA scientists are intrigued.

A 55-year low in solar radio emissions: After World War II, astronomers began keeping records of the sun's brightness at radio wavelengths. Records of 10.7 cm flux extend back all the way to the early 1950s. Radio telescopes are now recording the dimmest "radio sun" since 1955: plot. Some researchers believe that the lessening of radio emissions is an indication of weakness in the sun's global magnetic field. No one is certain, however, because the source of these long-monitored radio emissions is not fully understood.

All these lows have sparked a debate about whether the ongoing minimum is "weird", "extreme" or just an overdue "market correction" following a string of unusually intense solar maxima.

"Since the Space Age began in the 1950s, solar activity has been generally high," notes Hathaway. "Five of the ten most intense solar cycles on record have occurred in the last 50 years. We're just not used to this kind of deep calm."

Deep calm was fairly common a hundred years ago. The solar minima of 1901 and 1913, for instance, were even longer than the one we're experiencing now. To match those minima in terms of depth and longevity, the current minimum will have to last at least another year.

Perhaps things will be cooler in the future? Or not...