Maunder Minimum, right now? Sun activity at minimum...reasons?

[draqon]

Maunder Minimum is a period of a low solar activity and is appointed to a period of time between 1645 and 1715 when solar activity was extremely low, having only 50 sunspots occur against the normal 50,000 sunspots. That period was known for extremely cold weather as well...

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/june2008/130608_a_sun.htm

Currently the 11 year sun cycle seems to be extending itself at minimum activity indefinetely. Sun seems to be calm and this means no satellite outages and no powerline problems either...but this could also mean a new Ice Age could be on the coming, just like the Maunder Minimum.

[draqon]

So, what do you think is the real cause behind Maunder Minimum period going on now?

[blobrana]

Hum,
it's a bit early to say that a new Maunder Minimum is on its way.

"The solar cycle is within normal parameters....move along now..."

[Starthane Xyzth]

Humans have only been monitoring sunspot activity for a few centuries.; The 11-year cycles are well-documented; the Maunder Minimum may have been part of a much longer-term variability in the Sun. Perhaps the balance between Solar gravity and core fusion reactions isn't entirely smooth?

If another such minimum begins now, though, I should think that manmade global warming will counteract it. We won't have frost fairs on a frozen river Thames again. Indeed... a temporary cooling of the Sun might well give humanity a breathing space, allowing us a century or so to clean up our greenhouse gas emissions without disastrous climate change.

[blobrana]

The sun is behaving normally.
So says NASA solar physicist David Hathaway.

"There have been some reports lately that Solar Minimum is lasting longer than it should. That's not true. The ongoing lull in sunspot number is well within historic norms for the solar cycle."

Source (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/11jul_solarcycleupdate.htm)

[snake river rufus]

Am I correct in recalling that the English channel actually froze over in the 1640's?

[blobrana]

You are mixing up the English channel with the River Thames?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Channel

[snake river rufus]

You are mixing up the English channel with the River Thames?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Channel

Thank you for clearing that up.

[Vkothii]

The other big elephant was the Olde London Bridge.
Which, since it was falling down, isn't where it was when it slowed the Thames flow sufficiently to allow ice to form back then, also the river was a lot more polluted with all sorts of solid waste.

It would take much colder temperatures today, so say the New Scientists.