The Sun And A Historic Connection To Cold Weather 

September 3, 2009:

The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Weeks and sometimes whole months go by without even a single tiny sunspot. The quiet has dragged out for more than two years.

If sunspots do go away, it wouldn't be the first time. In the 17th century, the sun plunged into a 70-year period of spotlessness known as the Maunder Minimum that still baffles scientists. The sunspot drought began in 1645 and lasted until 1715; during that time, some of the best astronomers in history (e.g., Cassini) monitored the sun and failed to count more than a few dozen sunspots per year, compared to the usual thousands.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/03sep_sunspots.htm?list1301588 

November 5, 1998:
Shuttle Discovery is carrying two telescopes, SOLCON and SPARTAN, designed to unravel two of the most perplexing mysteries in science. One mystery concerns the temperature of the Earth: Did the Sun cause a "Little Ice Age" two hundred years ago?


In the late 17th century there was a 70 year period called the Maunder Minimum when no sunspots were observed on the Sun. The normal 11-yr sunspot cycle essentially stopped, and solar activity was abnormally low. At the same time Northern Europe experienced the "Little Ice Age", a series of bitter winters lasting 50 years. There was another decrease in sunspot activity between 1800 and 1830. It wasn't as severe as the Maunder Minimum, but temperatures in Europe and America took another dip. The year 1816 is sometimes referred to as "The Year without a Summer" because of unusually cold weather. Many of the novels of Charles Dickens, which depict harsh winters in London, were set in this period.  

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast05nov98_1.htm 








The Solar Cycle Close-up of a sunspot and solar granulation.  Our Sun has spots! These spots appear dark in photographs like the one above, but in fact sunspots are quite bright - they are just dark compared to the rest of the Sun. Although sunspots are cooler than the rest of the sun, the sun is generally hotter when there are many sunspots. The Solar Maximum Mission found that solar radiance increased by 0.1% at the maximum of the sunspot cycle. Scientists are predicting that the next solar maximum will occur in the year 2000.