Testing the “Watts Effect”
On Anthony Watts’ blog, he’s testing his apparent paranormal power to cause the Sun to break out into sunspots by writing about how blank the Sun is.
On this blog, I don’t believe in the paranormal, and it looks like the Sun is still slumbering, with no end in sight.
Here is the stereo view looking behind the Sun to the surface that has yet to come into view:
Stereo image of solar farside 29-08-2009
Nothing to report other than a coronal hole. Looks like Anthony’s got no more powers than I have.
Here’s the solar cycle progression to July 2009.
ISES Solar Cycle Progression Jul 2009
With August 2009 expected to be zero, that red line prediction is looking more and more optimistic.
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Slumber is an apt analogy–the sun has slipped into and out of deep sleep, last summer and this, only to progress deeper this time around. The lmsal/latest_events mapping of the polar and poloidal fields seems in very recent weeks to be most like the “thrusting down of her uplifted skirts”, the sun manifests at minimum, for this cycle 24 event.
@gary gulrud
For whatever reason, the Sun is still at minimum with no end in sight. For those of us who give credence to the theory that the Solar Cycle and the Earth’s climate are intimately related, then these are scary times with the prognosis of cooling, desertification and increased storminess especially in winter.
Uhmmm, Spot # 1025 appeared and is dying out on Sept 1. http://www.spaceweather.com/