http://www.news.com.au/world/brekki...-within-15-years/story-fndir2ev-1227439367667
BREKKIE WRAP: Earth heading for ‘mini ice age’ within 15 years
by: Rosemarie Lentini and Network Writers
July 13, 2015 5:53AM
Video
Image
EARTH faces a new “mini ice age” in the next 15 years, bringing year-round snowfields and turning normally ice-free waterways to sleet, scientists predict.
As the Antarctic Vortex grips Australia, solar researchers from the University of Northumbria in the UK say solar activity is set to plummet by 60 per cent in the 2030s.
Research lead Professor Valentina Zharkova said fluid movements within the Sun, believed to create 11-year cycles in the weather, will cancel each other out, triggering a dramatic temperature drop.
This will lead to a weather phenomenon known as a “mini ice age” which previously hit between 1645 and 1715.
Sunspot cycle ... a montage of images of solar activity between August 1991 and September
Sunspot cycle ... a montage of images of solar activity between August 1991 and September 2001. Picture: Yohkoh/ISAS/Lockheed-Martin/NAOJ/U — Tokyo/NASA via Royal Astronomical Society Source: Supplied
The findings are based on a new model which scientists claim produces “unprecedentedly accurate predictions of irregularities” within the Sun’s “heartbeat”.
“[In the cycle between 2030 and around 2040] the two waves exactly mirror each other — peaking at the same time but in opposite hemispheres of the sun,” Prof Zharkova said.
“Their interaction will be disruptive, or they will nearly cancel each other. We predict that this will lead to the properties of a ‘Maunder Minimum’.”
Maunder Minimum was the name given to the period between 1645 and 1715 when Europe and North America experienced very cold winters.
BREKKIE WRAP: Earth heading for ‘mini ice age’ within 15 years
by: Rosemarie Lentini and Network Writers
July 13, 2015 5:53AM
Video
Image
EARTH faces a new “mini ice age” in the next 15 years, bringing year-round snowfields and turning normally ice-free waterways to sleet, scientists predict.
As the Antarctic Vortex grips Australia, solar researchers from the University of Northumbria in the UK say solar activity is set to plummet by 60 per cent in the 2030s.
Research lead Professor Valentina Zharkova said fluid movements within the Sun, believed to create 11-year cycles in the weather, will cancel each other out, triggering a dramatic temperature drop.
This will lead to a weather phenomenon known as a “mini ice age” which previously hit between 1645 and 1715.
Sunspot cycle ... a montage of images of solar activity between August 1991 and September
Sunspot cycle ... a montage of images of solar activity between August 1991 and September 2001. Picture: Yohkoh/ISAS/Lockheed-Martin/NAOJ/U — Tokyo/NASA via Royal Astronomical Society Source: Supplied
The findings are based on a new model which scientists claim produces “unprecedentedly accurate predictions of irregularities” within the Sun’s “heartbeat”.
“[In the cycle between 2030 and around 2040] the two waves exactly mirror each other — peaking at the same time but in opposite hemispheres of the sun,” Prof Zharkova said.
“Their interaction will be disruptive, or they will nearly cancel each other. We predict that this will lead to the properties of a ‘Maunder Minimum’.”
Maunder Minimum was the name given to the period between 1645 and 1715 when Europe and North America experienced very cold winters.
