My physics profs back in the 1970s convinced me that the sun is the major driver for earth’s climate (this was in the days of “global cooling” and “the coming ice age”).
I’m still persuaded by this argument, which is why our Solar cycle #24 is so fascinating to me.
Solar cycle 24 has seen very low solar activity thus far, likely the lowest in 100 years.
Figure 1: F10.7 Flux 2014 – 2017
The F10.7 flux shows that over the last three and a half years the Sun has gone from solar maximum through a bounded decline to the current stage of the trail to minimum. Solar minimum is likely to be still three years away.
Figure 2: F10.7 Flux of Solar Cycles 19 to 24 aligned on month of minimum
Solar Cycle 24 is sitting at the lower bound of activity for solar cycles back to 1964, the start of Solar Cycle 19. From here to minimum though, it looks like Solar Cycle 24 will have much lower volatility than the solar cycles that preceded it.
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