[Nodxa] Are Sunspots Disappearing?

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

The full article, including the graph mentioned, was at    
www.spaceweather.com  a few days ago.

Select the Archives (upper  right of home page) for August 22 for the 
original article.

73   -  Jim   K8MR
 
 
 
=========================================


ARE SUNSPOTS  DISAPPEARING? Sunspots are made of magnetism. The "firmament" 
of a sunspot is  not matter but rather a strong magnetic field that appears 
dark because it  blocks the upflow of heat from the sun's fiery depths. 
Without magnetism, there  would be no sunspots. 
That's what makes the following graph a little  troubling:


According to Bill Livingston and Matt Penn of the National  Solar 
Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, sunspot magnetic fields are waning. The  two 
respected solar astronomers have been measuring solar magnetism since 1992.  Their 
technique is based on Zeeman splitting of infrared spectral lines emitted  by 
iron atoms in the vicinity of sunspots. Extrapolating their data into the  
future suggests that sunspots could completely disappear within decades. 
That  would be a bummer for Spaceweather.com.

Don't count out sunspots just  yet, however. While the data of Livingston 
and Penn are widely thought to be  correct, far-reaching extrapolations may 
be premature. This type of measurement  is relatively new, and the data 
reaches back less than 17 years. "Whether this  is an omen of long-term sunspot 
decline, analogous to the Maunder Minimum,  remains to be seen," they caution 
in a recent EOS article.

One thing is  certain. Solar Minimum is a lot more interesting than it 
sounds.