On the New Prolonged Solar Activity Minimum

摘要

The current 24th solar activity cycle started in 2008 and continuing to the present is anomalous in comparison with previous cycles. Its unusual properties include a low sunspot number R_z for a long time, a weak interplanetary magnetic field, a weak polar photospheric field in the Sun, and others. Beginning in 1000 to the present, five prolonged solar activity minima took place. These minima occurred in time intervals, when the distance between the center of mass of the solar system and the Sun center changed several times from maximum to minimum values for 40–70 years. Since the beginning of the new millennium, exactly such a period started and it can be assumed that we entered a new prolonged minimum which will last for several decades. In the current 24th and subsequent 2–3 solar activity cycles, annual average sunspot numbers will be low, R_(zmax) ≤ (50 ? 70).