The Sun is entering a deep solar minimum - What does this mean for us?

Deep Solar Minimum

Before any of you get worried, the sun isn't going anywhere, not for millions of years at least. What is happening however, is a phase shift which occurs every decade or so.

Global warming theories aside, the Sun itself goes through cycles of varying activity. This happens every 11 years or so. During these cycles, the sun goes from being relatively hot, to relatively cold and the measurable differences can be felt on Earth.

As you can see from the above plot, we are entering a local low in terms of sun activity. We can also see from the plot, that while it is apparent the sun does have phase behaviour, each of them are unique.

One way we are able to gauge the activity of the sun, is to look at the sunspots. These are the dark patches on the sun that appear due to variations in magnetic flux and surface temperature convection. While the sunspots themselves are local areas of lower temperature, their appearances are associated with higher temperatures. Thus, during solar maximum's we are able to see more sunspots.

Finding the bottom

At the moment, we are reaching new local lows in terms of the number of sun spots appearing. In-fact, in 2019, the sun was blank 77% of the time, and this year so far, it has been blank 76% of the time. While this does mean that there is 1% more sunspots than last year, the total amount of time that the sun has been blank without sunspots has been unprecedentedly low.

Like financial markets, it is anyone's guess as to where the low of sun spot activity lies, but looking at the trends, we are certainly headed towards a deep solar minimum. One which will yield a decade of noticeably colder weather, perhaps even a few decades.

How does this affect the Earth?

Before we scream Armageddon and think of some zany strategy to re-ignite the Sun, just remember that these phases have been on-going for as far as we've had the technology to monitor the Sun.

Industries which rely on ideal climate conditions, in particular the activity of the sun will be affected the most. This almost always means the farming industry. Historically speaking, crop yields have always been substantially reduced during local solar minimums. It just so happens that right now, we have excessive food wastage due to the on-going crisis.

But it's not only the farming industry affected. Infact, there is a significant correlation between the solar cycle, and that of volcanic activity. During solar minimums, the Earth receives more cosmic rays from outside of the solar system. This is because the sun is less effective at shielding us from this rays. The rays have been documented as catalysts for bubble nucleation within magma, and thus heightened volcanic and earthquake activity is expected.