On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:22:26 -0600, thunder
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:19:03 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports wrote:

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?

All of the above. Something about Hams. ;-)

ROFTL!!!

"I'm not a solar scientist nor do I play one on TV..."

Having followed this for years, you do start to pick up on things here
and there. Recently, there has been some great solar space science
done at diifferent wavelengths in the past ten or so years which has
really powered up Earth weather science and some very interesting
correlations with the decadal and multidecadal ocean oscillations.

Live long enough, you'll pick up stuff if you're scientifically
oriented. :)