What is the sunspot cycle or solar cycle?
The sunspot activity on the Sun increases and decreases periodically over a number of years. This is called the sunspot cycle or solar cycle.
What is the period of the sunspot cycle?
The period of the sunspot cycle is approximately 11 years.
What is the pattern of recurrence of the sunspot cycle?
The pattern of the years of maximum sunspot activity can be taken as 1979, 1990, 2001, 2012, etc. as a rough eleven year cycle.
What are the apparent and true solar cycles?
The apparent solar cycle is observed to be about 11 years.
However, studies of the magnetic fields of pairs of the magnetic fields of pairs of sunspots show that magnetic polarity also reverses every 11 years. The true period of solar activity is therefore 22 years or twice the apparent period.
When is the Sun said to be quiet?
The Sun is said to be quiet when very few sunspots erupt. For example, the Sun was relatively quiet from 1645 to 1715 and few sunspots cloud be seen during this period.
Does the sunspot cycle affect the Earth?
Over the sunspot cycle, or solar cycle, there is a slight change in the level of radiation emanating from the Sun as light, heat, etc. Hence, temperatures on Earth are slightly more when the Sun is more active. This may cause melting of the polar ice caps and change in climate on Earth.
Does the sunspot cycle have any influence human beings?
There seems to be an unexplained correlation between sunspot peaks and violence upon Earth. It has been witnessed over many 11-year sunspot cycles that incidents of violence, murders, immolations, shootouts and accidents seem to be increasing with the number of sunspots.
What is migration of sunspots?
Sunspots do not generally remain in one place, but keep moving towards the solar equator. This is called migration of sunspots.
What is an ice age?
The unusually cold climate on Earth which accompanies a period when the Sun is quiet, is called an ice age.
Have there been any ice ages in recent times?
Ice ages occur cyclically over a long period of thousands of years. However, there was a mini ice age from 1400 to 1850 when the Earth’s climate became unusually cold.