The Sun has entered a period of reduced activity, known as a solar minimum, which happens on a cyclical pattern; meaning the burning heart of our solar system swings between energetic peaks and lows. When the sun peaks in activity – the solar maximum – more sunspots and solar flares erupt.
Sun Cycles
The sun has a cycle that lasts between nine and 14 years—typically 11 years, on average—and right now we’re in the trough. At the peak of that cycle—called solar maximum—the sun produces more electrons and protons as huge solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
From a visual perspective, the solar cycle is a “sunspot cycle” since solar scientists can gauge where the Sun is in its cycle by counting sunspots on its surface.
what is a sunspot
It’s an area of intense magnetic activity on the surface of the sun—a storm—that appears as an area of darkness. Sunspots are indicative of solar activity, birthing solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
What is a solar minimum
Solar Minimums are prolonged periods of reduced solar activity, typically every 11 years. In the past have gone hand-in-hand with times of global cooling.
Just as solar maximum sees many sunspots, the trough of solar minimum features zero sunspots—and that’s what’s going on now. However, it’s been continuing rather longer than expected, which means the sun is in the midst of a particularly deep solar minimum. The most infamous happened between 1645 to 1715 when a “Maunder Minimum” saw a prolonged sunspot minimum when sunspots were very rare for an extended period.
According to Spaceweather.com reports that there have already been 100 days in 2020 when our Sun has displayed zero sunspots. That makes 2020 the second consecutive year of a record-setting low number of sunspots
The last time we had a GSM (the Maunder Minimum) only two magnetic fields of the sun went out of phase.
This time, all four magnetic fields are going out of phase.
Note: never look at the Sun with the naked eye or through binoculars or a telescope that aren’t fitted with solar filters.
“This is a sign that the Grand solar minimum is underway,”
“So far this year, the Sun has been blank 76% of the time, a rate surpassed only once before in the Space Age. Last year, 2019, the Sun was blank 77% of the time. Two consecutive years of record-setting spotlessness adds up to a very deep solar minimum, indeed.” (source1), (source2)
During a Solar Minimum, the sun’s magnetic field weakens. This ‘heliosphere’ usually protects the solar system from charged particles from deep space known as cosmic rays, and with its strength diminished, more of these rays can sneak through.
Earth has a second line of defense in the form of its own magnetic field and atmosphere, but for people and objects in space, such protection isn’t afforded, and cosmic rays can cause technical complications.
It’s more the activity of the sun in the years following Solar Minimum that we should be paying attention to.
“After our sun passes the current Solar Minimum, solar activity like eruptive prominences are expected to become more common over the next few years,” said NASA.
These prominences can be huge – the entire earth would easily fit inside them – and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection, expelling hot gas into the solar system.
In 1859, a Coronal Mass Ejection was so large it caused a geomagnetic storm called the ‘Carrington Event’.
“The Carrington Event compressed the Earth’s magnetic field so violently that currents were created in telegraph wires so great that many wires sparked and gave telegraph operators shocks,” said NASA.
“Were a Carrington-class event to impact the Earth today, speculation holds that damage might occur to global power grids and electronics on a scale never yet experienced.”
// How does the grand solar minimum affect earth?? //
A new study predicts that the next grand solar minimum could see the sun with almost a 7% reduction in light and heat – and this is 7% below the normal solar minimum. So pretty darned cold.
Historians believe that a grand solar minimum occurred between 1645 and 1715. That event was named the Maunder Minimum after the scientists who studied it at the time.
It got so cold that the Thames River in England froze solid. The Baltic Sea also froze and the Swedes were able to invade the Danes by marching across the frozen sea.
This wasn’t the first grand solar event in history. Another one is figured to have occurred from 1450-1540 called the Spörer minimum. (source)
The things preppers would need to focus on would be a food supply, alternative ways of growing, and ways to keep warm. An event lasting multiple decades would definitely outlast any supplies that most of us could squirrel away, so the key to survival would be adaptation to the new climate.
It is unlikely to send us the way of the dinosaurs, but should it begin to occur in earnest, you’d want to take prepepping steps to an entirely different level.