2013 was due to be year of the 'solar maximum'
As this picture shows, in fact the sun is incredibly calm - baffling experts
'Something unexpected' is happening on the Sun, Nasa has warned.
This year was supposed to be the year of 'solar maximum,' the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle.
But as this image reveals, solar activity is relatively low.
Scroll down for videoAnd here's the NASA release:
Sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent,as this image shows - despite Nasa forecasting major solar storms
'Sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent,' the space agency says.
The image above shows the Earth-facing surface of the Sun on February 28, 2013, as observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
It observed just a few small sunspots on an otherwise clean face, which is usually riddled with many spots during peak solar activity.
Experts have been baffled by the apparent lack of activity - with many wondering if NASA simply got it wrong.
However, Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center believes he has a different explanation.
'This is solar maximum,' he says.
'But it looks different from what we expected because it is double-peaked.'
'The last two solar maxima, around 1989 and 2001, had not one but two peaks.'...MORE
A Quiet Interlude in Solar Max
...MORE
Possibly related:
Herschel and Me (Sunspots and Wheat)
You can also peruse the work of William Stanley Jevons (he of the paradox):
"The Solar Period and the Price of Corn" (1875)
"The Periodicity of Commercial Crises and Its Physical Explanation" (1878)
“Commercial crises and sun-spots”, Nature xix
You may want to dip into the big daddy of price series:
by J. E. Thorold‐Rogers, 7 volumes, 1866-1887 which probably influenced Jevons.
Here's another bit o'price series scholarship:
