AS102 Study Guide - Final Guide: Maunder Minimum, Little Ice Age
Document Summary
Using fairly reliable data over the past 350 years the graph of sunspot activity looks pretty much like that shown below. One particularly striking observation from this 400- year record is the very low level of solar activity from about 1650 to 1720. This period, known as the maunder minimum, was accompanied by unusually cool temperatures (resulting in crop failures and some famine) over much of the earth. This period is also referred to as the little ice age. Evidence points to other periods of "quiet solar activity" (from around 1475 until 1625), but also. "stronger solar activity" over a 200-year period centered around 1200. No one really knows why these longer-term variations happen. 2008 when the next cycle (cycle 24) of sunspot activity was supposed to have started. About 260 years ago the cycles started to be numbered and by 2012 we should be well into cycle 24.
