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Sunspot cycle 24 - will it ever show?

An interesting argument that sunspots may be going away entirely. From Watts Up With That:

NASA: Are Sunspots Disappearing?
From NASA News: Are Sunspots Disappearing?

September 3, 2009: The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Weeks and sometimes whole months go by without even a single tiny sunspot. The quiet has dragged out for more than two years, prompting some observers to wonder, are sunspots disappearing?

�Personally, I�m betting that sunspots are coming back,� says researcher Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona. But, he allows, �there is some evidence that they won�t.�

Penn�s colleague Bill Livingston of the NSO has been measuring the magnetic fields of sunspots for the past 17 years, and he has found a remarkable trend. Sunspot magnetism is on the decline.

I had blogged about it on August 21st. The thing to look at is this -- the magnetic strength of the sunspots: Last winter was brutal, this coming winter should be interesting... Posted by DaveH at September 3, 2009 9:14 PM