Gradual onset of the Maunder Minimum revealed by high-precision carbon-14 analyses.

ABSTRACT: The Sun exhibits centennial-scale activity variations and sometimes encounters grand solar minimum when solar activity becomes extremely weak and sunspots disappear for several decades. Such an extreme weakening of solar activity could cause severe climate, causing massive reductions in crop yields in some regions. During the past decade, the Sun's activity has tended to decline, raising concerns that the Sun might be heading for the next grand minimum. However, we still have an underdeveloped understanding of solar dynamo mechanisms and hence precise prediction of near-future solar activity is not attained. Here we show that the 11-year solar cycles were significantly lengthened before the onset of the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715 CE) based on unprecedentedly high-precision data of carbon-1

SUBMITTER: Miyahara H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7943760 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature