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<H1>Could magnetic flows cause sunspot lows</H1>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>A new study may explain why the solar minimum lasted an
extra 15 months and may help predict the duration and severity of future solar
cycles.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG><EM>Science News</EM></STRONG> says <STRONG>David
Hathaway</STRONG> of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.,
and <STRONG>Lisa Rightmire</STRONG> of the University of Memphis in Tennessee
analyzed 13 years of SOHO measurements that tracked the movement of ionized gas
from the solar equator to the poles. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>The researchers found that the relatively slow gas
movement, known as the meridional flow, sped up a few years before the last
solar minimum began in 2008. What’s more, the flow was substantially
faster than the speed at the previous solar minimum, a more typical and less
extended downturn in solar activity some 11 years earlier.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Hathaway and Rightmire suggest that the faster meridional
flow produced weaker magnetic fields at the sun’s poles, which extended the
solar minimum.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Read the full Science News story 'Magnetic flows cause
sunspot lows, study shows'<BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/57180/title/Magnetic_flows_cause_sunspot_lows,_study_shows"
target=_blank><FONT
face=Tahoma>http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/57180/title/Magnetic_flows_cause_sunspot_lows,_study_shows</FONT></A></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>What In The World Is The Sun Up To Now?<BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1835884/what_in_the_world_is_the_sun_up_to_now/"
target=_blank><FONT
face=Tahoma>http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1835884/what_in_the_world_is_the_sun_up_to_now/</FONT></A></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Science Magazine<BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/" target=_blank><FONT
face=Tahoma>http://www.sciencemag.org/</FONT></A></P></BODY></HTML>