Scientists believe man-made climate change might make parts of the world uninhabitable by the end of the century as carbon omissions continue to heat up the globe. However, some experts believe the solar minimum – a prolonged period of lower activity from the sun – could help to negate the effects of global warming. The sun goes through 11 year periods of higher and lesser activity. These roughly 11 year spells are called the solar minimum and solar maximum.
During a solar maximum, the Sun gives off more heat and is littered with sunspots. Less heat in a solar minimum is due to a decrease in magnetic waves sent into space and fewer sunspots.
Using computer simulations, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, believe that a “grand solar minimum” could help slow down climate change – although not stop it completely.
The research stated: “A grand solar minimum in the middle of the 21st century would slow down human-caused global warming and reduce the relative increase of surface temperatures by several tenths of a degree Celsius.”
However, the research goes on to say that when the solar minimum ends, climate change would pick up where it left off.
It reads: “Therefore a grand solar minimum would slow down and somewhat delay, but not stop, human-caused global warming.”
The sun can effect the climate on Earth, with a prolonged solar minimum once leading to a “mini ice age”.
The Maunder minimum, which saw seven decades of freezing weather, began in 1645 and lasted through to 1715, and happened when sunspots were exceedingly rare.
During this period, temperatures dropped globally by 1.3 degrees Celsius leading to shorter seasons and ultimately food shortages.
NASA explains on its website: “All weather on Earth, from the surface of the planet out into space, begins with the sun.
“Space weather and terrestrial weather (the weather we feel at the surface) are influenced by the small changes the Sun undergoes during its solar cycle.”
