Got a sunspot today but the sun has been spot-free for a record 203 days in 2018. From NASA's Spaceweather site:
A NEW SUNSPOT
Breaking a string of 9 spotless days, a new sunspot group is emerging near the sun's equator. Only 24 hours ago it was invisible. Now the sunspot contains almost a dozen dark cores and sprawls across more than 75,000 km of the solar surface. Click here to watch a movie of sunspot genesis.
And here is the updated list of spotless days:
Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2018 total: 203 days (60%)
2017 total: 104 days (28%)
2016 total: 32 days (9%)
2015 total: 0 days (0%)
2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
Quite the change - sunspot activity is a proxy for solar output. The sun drives our climate - not carbon dioxide. CO2 is plant food - without it, we would have no plants as it is a required component for photosynthesys.
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