New insights on how solar minimums affect Earth Since 1611,
humans have recorded the comings and goings of black spots on
the sun. The number of these sunspots wax and wane over
approximately an 11-year cycle -- more sunspots generally mean
more activity and eruptions on the sun and vice versa. The
number of sunspots can change from cycle to cycle and 2008 saw
the longest and weakest solar minimum since scientists have been
monitoring the sun with space-based instruments. Observations
have shown, however, that magnetic effects on Earth due to the
sun, effects that cause the aurora to appear, did not go down in
synch with the cycle of low magnetism on the sun. Now, a paper
in Annales Geophysicae that appeared on May 16, 2011 reports
that these effects on Earth did in fact reach a minimum --
indeed they attained their lowest levels of the century -- but
some eight months later. The scientists believe that factors in
the speed of the solar wind, and the strength and direction of
the magnetic fields embedded with