Sunny Sunny Sunset
I do a bit of close up photography of the sun and the moon. This is the sun on a smokey summer night as the horizon rose to meet it. Usually one would have to either totally shut down the camera to light or use a glass neutral density filter on front of the camera to photograph this. With enough forest fire derived smoke in the atmosphere, the picture becomes easier.
This sun as are most of the sun images I’ve taken at the solar minimum show no sun spots. We are literally at a sunspot low since 1913. Low sunspot numbers lead to a cooler climate on a general level due to a large number of reasons. We are in solar cycle 24 (since 1755 when they were first noticed and subsequently recorded. These cycles from low to high sunspot numbers with an average 11 years. This is a very interesting time to be an informed geologist watching the climate “debate”. I’ve been following this since 1976.
The Maunder Minimum was an extended period from 1645 to 1715 where it got cold as the sun (the furnace) turned down the heat. Known as “the Litle Ice Age, the growing season in Europe shortened by a full month. Crop losses caused mass famines . The population of Iceland decreased by about half. . Exceptionally severe winters were the rule in North America. China had to change the crops it had grown for centuries to adapt .
If the furnace turns itself down, famine with hard times follow. Warm times geologically have been periods of high biological activities. We better hope it doesn’t get colder….. During Maudner: (Solar radiance was down about .24% lower than current levels so it doesn’t take much)
Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.
Title: Sunny Sunny Sunset