What's So Peculiar About the Cycle 23/24 Solar Minimum?
Abstract
Traditionally, solar physicists become anxious around solar minimum, as they await the high-latitude sunspot groups of the new cycle. Now, we are in an extended sunspot minimum with conditions not seen in recent memory, and interest in the sunspot cycle has increased again. In this paper, I will describe some of the characteristics of the current solar minimum, including its great depth, its extended duration, its weak polar magnetic elds, and its small amount of open ux. Flux-transport simulations suggest that these characteristics are a consequence of temporal variations of the Sun's large-scale meridional circulation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA520890
Entities
People
- N. R. Sheeley Jr.
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory