The Maunder Minimum - revisited

Sunset from a cruise ship in Western Australia Photo: John Maunder

" The Sun pays no heed to human committees" *

*This phrase with a minor change is given in a NASA release on "New Solar Cycle Prediction" on May 29 2009 (see http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29may_noaaprediction.htm

The "Maunder Minimum" is the name given to the period from 1650 to 1700

when the number of sunspots became almost zero. The period is named after the

solar astronomer Edward Walter Maunder (1851-1928) who while working at The Royal

Observatory, Greenwich discovered the dearth of sunspots during the 1650-1700 period.

During one 30 year period within the Maunder Minimum there were only about 50 sunspots

compared with a more typical 40,000. Maunder was a driving force in the foundation of

the British Astronomical Association, and was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical

Society.

The Sun was well observed during the period of the Maunder Minimum and this lack of sunspots is well documented. This period of solar inactivity also corresponds to a climatic period called the "Little Ice Age" when rivers that are normally ice-free froze and snow fields remained year-round at lower altitudes. There is evidence that the Sun has had similar periods of inactivity in the more distant past. The connection between solar activity and terrestrial climate is an area of on-going research. Time will tell whether the sun will once again go into another Maunder Minimum within the lifetime of the present generation.

The NASA Solar Physics web site( see http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/ )

includes information on sunspot numbers, the "Maunder Minimum" and Sunspot Cycle predictions. The NOAA sunspot index is updated monthy and available from 1749.

For a graphical display of the sunspot index, the Maunder "butterfly" diagram, and other solar matters from the Royal Observatory of Belgium, see http://sidc.oma.be/sunspot-index-graphics/sidc_graphics.php

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Last updated: May 15, 2013