Low Sunspot numbers

WHY LOW SUNSPOTS FOR NEXT TWO DECADES.?manswer.....

One reason is obvious... over the next two decades there will only be one solar max, but there will be two minimums.

More important than that, solar activity seems to come in long term up and down cycles, above and beyond the 11-year periodicity, and we appear to be in a down cycle now.

About every 100 years or so there has been a dip in sunspot activity lasting several cycles. The first is the Maunder Minimum in the 17th century. The second is the Dalton Minimum 200 years ago. The third is a weak unnamed minimum at the beginning of last century.
http://www.pbase.com/azleader/image/160661654/original

Sunspot peaks have decreased over the last three cycles, mimicking the three previous down periods. Solar physicists forecast that Cycle 25 will be low, too. If it comes to pass, it's been proposed to call it the Eddy Minimum.

Over the last couple years there has been widespread, overzealous speculation that Cycle 25 will be even lower than Cycle 24 was, and Cycle 24 is one of the lowest on record. However, Leif Svalgaard, who I believe is the world's leading solar physicist, came out recently with new data and said that early indicators for Cycle 25 is that it will be slightly higher than Cycle 24.

Nobody predicts that Cycle 25 will be anywhere near normal strength. Thus... there are a lot of spotless days in our near-term future. QED. lol!!!!

On Monday, June 6, 2016 at 6:34:52 PM UTC-7, eqshannon wrote:Tell me your basis for saying "over

the next couple decades."

Bob