On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:10:32 -0600, thunder
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:01:16 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports wrote:


Yeah - I've been listening - had a long path QSO with a JA on 30 meters
which was a shocker. That's rather unusual.

I'm not sure its sunspots though - at least not at this stage of Cycle
24. I think what's happening is that we're seeing some flare activity
in the Helium I sphere which created a coronal hole - that would cause
an increase in magenetosphere energy here on Earth. As of today, none
of the major observatories have seen any sunspot activity at all. In
fact, the active/minor/severe potential at mid and high latitudes is at
.05/.01/.01 respectively. No spots. :)

I was reading today that the solar jet stream is finally moving into
position towards the sun's equator - two years or so later than it
normally does. That portends increased sunspot activity. How long that
lasts though is a question - it may be the last "umph" before it enters
another Maunder Minimum as some have speculated. The timing is right.

Huh?? ;-)

Huh what? That the sun has a region of high speed gas they call a jet
stream at the 7Km depth level which causes sunspots or the Maunder
Minimum?