Solar Cycle 24 Predictions: 

[3-26-07 ECB] Conservative predictions shown in red by Hathaway, NASA/NOAA, 2007, uses an older statistically-based model. Other predictions using Solar Dynamic Models indicate a higher peak for Cycle 24. Cycle 25 "seems" too low in this chart when compared to the past nine Activity Cycles

SOLAR OUTPUT 1975-2005

This chart of the last three Solar Cycles is profoundly important for many reasons.  First, it demonstrates that scientists have learned in just the last 30 years that gross solar output is almost precisely parallel with the output of Sunspots. In other words, the Sunspot Cycle is actually the Solar Activity Cycle.  Secondly the chart demonstrates that Sunspot numbers define the amount of actual irradiance (also called luminescence) which strikes the top of the Earth's atmosphere. This measure in turn is telling us how much "heat" energy is being delivered to the Earth.  As we can see, the total energy has been declining in average since 1975.  With less primary heat, there is also less "reflected" or "green-housed" heat. To make a long story short, this chart demonstrates that neither the Sun, nor all its cycles, nor all the Greenhouse Gases, nor all the inflated academic claims concerning them, have much to do with the obvious warming of the Earth.  Ignorance is a wonderful thing.  It frees the mind to seek the right answers.  Go seek, find the real cause of Global Warming.

Chart by Robert A. Rohde for the Global Warming Art Project
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Solar_Cycle_Variations.png

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Solar cycle 24, due to peak in 2010 or 2011 "looks like its going to be one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago," says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. He and colleague Robert Wilson presented this conclusion last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

Right: An erupting solar prominence photographed by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). [More]

Their forecast is based on historical records of geomagnetic storms.

Hathaway explains: "When a gust of solar wind hits Earth's magnetic field, the impact causes the magnetic field to shake. If it shakes hard enough, we call it a geomagnetic storm." In the extreme, these storms cause power outages and make compass needles swing in the wrong direction. Auroras are a beautiful side-effect.

Hathaway and Wilson looked at records of geomagnetic activity stretching back almost 150 years and noticed something useful:. "The amount of geomagnetic activity now tells us what the solar cycle is going to be like 6 to 8 years in the future," says Hathaway. A picture is worth a thousand words:

Above: Peaks in geomagnetic activity (red) foretell solar maxima (black) more than six years in advance. [More]

In the plot, above, black curves are solar cycles; the amplitude is the sunspot number. Red curves are geomagnetic indices, specifically the Inter-hour Variability Index or IHV. "These indices are derived from magnetometer data recorded at two points on opposite sides of Earth: one in England and another in Australia. IHV data have been taken every day since 1868," says Hathaway.

Cross correlating sunspot number vs. IHV, they found that the IHV predicts the amplitude of the solar cycle 6-plus years in advance with a 94% correlation coefficient.

"We don't know why this works," says Hathaway. The underlying physics is a mystery. "But it does work."

According to their analysis, the next Solar Maximum should peak around 2010 with a sunspot number of 160 plus or minus 25. This would make it one of the strongest solar cycles of the past fifty years—which is to say, one of the strongest in recorded history.

Left: Hathaway and Wilson's prediction for the amplitude of Solar Cycle 24. [More]

Astronomers have been counting sunspots since the days of Galileo, watching solar activity rise and fall every 11 years. Curiously, four of the five biggest cycles on record have come in the past 50 years. "Cycle 24 should fit right into that pattern," says Hathaway.

These results are just the latest signs pointing to a big Cycle 24. Most compelling of all, believes Hathaway, is the work of Mausumi Dikpati and colleagues at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. "They have combined observations of the sun’s 'Great Conveyor Belt' with a sophisticated computer model of the sun’s inner dynamo to produce a physics-based prediction of the next solar cycle." In short, it's going to be intense. Details may be found in the Science@NASA story Solar Storm Warning.

"It all hangs together," says Hathaway. Stay tuned for solar activity.

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Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Production Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Hathaway points out that there are actually two types of geomagnetic activity:

(1) storms caused by the gentle buffeting of solar wind streams and

(2) storms caused by the more forceful impact of flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

"Only the first type has predictive value," says Hathaway. "Storms caused by solar wind streams come and go in a regular pattern that foretells the solar cycle. Storms caused by flares and CMEs don't have this property." To improve their results, Hathaway and Wilson used a technique developed by Joan Feynman to remove storms caused by flares and CMEs from their data.

Reference: Hathaway, D. H. and Wilson, R. M. 2006, "Geomagnetic activity indicates large amplitude for sunspot cycle 24", Geophys. Res. Lett. in press.

The Phoenix Five Revised Scenario will be based on the following logic:

These projected Solar Activity Cycles are of immense importance because of the impact of Cycle 19 on the shifting of the Spin Axis in 1958.  Cycle 24 may be as large as Cycle 19 and this may bring enough new shifting and tectonic motion in the Earth's crust to initiate major tectonic ruptures around the Pacific Rim.  From now through to the MAX of Cycle 24, increasing break up in the crust may be evident through a variety of increased tectonic activities.  During the MAX years of 2011-2014, the ruptures may begin the long predicted destructions in the Western U.S.  The final breakup of the crust may occur during the MAX period of Cycle 25, which is not likely to be so small as shown here.  In all cases we will be watching the Great Rift for the auguries.  Always, the windows of greatest danger will be the combination of the "whammies", New Moon or Full Moon, Perigee, Perihelion, Mercury aligned with another inner planet or even Jupiter, during the peak years of the Solar Cycle.  Add as well the Eclipse Nodal Cycle (18 years) to find the extremes in the Lunar Sygygy, the next of which occurs in 2022.   It is the splitting of the Great Rift which is the key to the entire Earth Changes phenomenon, including the current waves of Global Warming and acidification of the oceans.  The Wobble pumps the Great Rift and the Great Rift spreads the tectonic plates and forces the motions which cause them to buckle and grind against each other... and every once in a very great while the tectonic plates avalanche together en masse to redistribute their mass to achieve a better condition of balance in the spinning vortices of the Earth-Moon-Sun System.