Someone has it WRONG!

As of this writing ... Early am 10 August 2009,

we have now been 30 days WITHOUT a sunspot, (equaling the same time period of 2008.)

        Where we The Phelps County Amateur Radio Technical Society, are in central Missouri, at this time we have set a new record for cool tempuratures as well.

     July 2009 for the Rolla Missouri Area (recorded at Vichy National Airport north of town)

is the coolest JULY on record!

     This INCLUDES the Year without a summer (1816) 193 years ago, that was likely caused by a combination of a deep solar minimum (The DALTON minimum), which I have mentioned elsewhere on these pages, and the 1815 Eruption of Krakatau (Tambora), which threw large amounts of dust and gasses into the atmosphere reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the ground in the NORTHERN hemisphere (In the Central Missouri area there is only 1 month WITHOUT recorded snowfall, and surprisingly it's NOT July or August, it is September which is traditionally our warmest month).

      So far we have been lucky!, we well could have had any number of large volcanic eruptions over the past year or so that in conjunction with the current deep minimum, may have well caused another year without a summer, be glad it hasn't happened lately. 

      Volcanos of interest, that threaten to be a problem sometime in the future include, the Yellowstone SUPER volcano, which by it's average eruption frequency is OVERDUE.

      Anak Krakatau (son of Krakatau) in Indonesia,which has nearly rebuilt itself to it's parent's height.

     Mount Hood in the United States has periodically across the last few years begun to act as if it might be awakening.

     Thera (pronounced TEERA) on Santorini Island, remains an enigma but also appears to be a long duration super volcano, Thera lies in the eastern Mediterranean Sea,  (where the worlds MOST active volcano is), NO KILUEA IS NOT THE WORLDS MOST ACTIVE VOLCANO!,  it has only been in constant eruption for 24 years. The most active volcano is Stromboli a Strato volcano near Sicily which has been in CONSTANT eruption for the past 2400+ years (2400 years on record).

Any large volcanic eruption could certainly bring us fully into a very bad few years for crops and low tempuratures as occurred during the year without a summer. We are definately coming into a cool period right now (look it up there is actually data showing that the last 9 years have TOTALLY reversed the NOTED upward trend in tempuratures that began during the 1970's), this cooling seems most likely to be an effect caused by the deepening solar cycle 23/24 minimum, but not the main cause as of this time. Although during times of low solar radiance, wind, and magnetism there are effects that are caused by Galactic Cosmic Rays, (GCR) wihic include a greter than usual increase in ultra reflecting clouds (brighter than normal cloud systems) which increase the albedo of the planet. Albedo is the amount of heat / radiation reflected by an object, and is measured from 0 to 1 (meaning nearly all measurements are in fractions ie; charcoal is 0.4, and snow is a 1). These ultra reflective clouds have an albedo approaching 1, and with an increase in clouds created by GCR there IS a noticable decrease in heat reaching the surface of our planet, totals at this time cannot be definatively measured but appearances seem to say there is a significant change in the amount of heat reaching the planet.

              Also of note are the fact that the few new cycle (cycle 24) sunspots have been on the VERY small size, somewhat related in size to the ones just following the Medievel Warm Period, which Gallileo documented. Mid-July there was yet another cycle 23 sunspot noted (it was also very small and had a duration of less than 12 hours so did not even change the sunspot number for that day), This means that we are still in the minimum directly between the old and new cycles, though less and less of the cycle 23 sunspots have occured during the past 7 months, we are still seeing them.

Included in the many things going on during this solar minimum and SHOULD be mentioned are the DECREASE in solar wind, a DECREASE in solar irradiance, a decrease in solar RADIO activity (55 year low), a decrease in solar magnetism (could our planetary orbit be effected?), as well as the concomittant REDUCTION in the thickness of the Earth's atmosphere, which has a plus side to it it making low earth orbit sattelites last longer due to less atmospheric drag!

       As noted elsewhere in these pages and on MANY others, Dr. Hathaway (NASA) has not adjusted his predictions for solar cycle intensity or peak, yet all ACTUAL observed evidence shows he might just have it wrong. See articles on www.spaceweather.com and others that have links to his diagrams / predictions.

       All of this just seems to confirm the fact that GLOBAL WARMING IS MOST LIKELY A FARCE!, (btw doesn't Al Gore actually use more electricity than the AVERAGE person, making him a suspect in the global warming cause??) Which with his continued belief in and being a proponent of globla warming it his name has become a  tongue in cheek name for the current cycle 23/24 minimum,  (The GORE minimum!).

 Today's sources include:

Wikipedia,

the Hawaii Volcano observatory,

Spaceweather.com.

NOAA

Australian IPS web