Scientists specializing in solar research at the University of Northumbria, UK, have announced that the northern hemisphere will experience a mini ice age within the next 15 years. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to be a sneaky marketing strategy pulled by the creators of ‘Frozen’. But, hey, this news not all that bad.
History repeating
Between the years 1645 and 1715, Europe and North American reportedly confronted a sort of mini ice age as a result of a ‘Maunder minimum’, which is a name given to low solar activity. Prof Valentina Zharkova claims that in 2030, two fluids which normally lead to 11-year weather cycles will cancel out each other, causing solar activity to decrease by 60%. In the winter of 1683-84, English people took this ‘little ice age’ rather well by holding frost fairs on the river Thames, which was entirely frozen. Unfortunately, the year-round climate is not generally as mild everywhere in the northern hemisphere. Surely though, ‘Frozen’ fans are already prepared.
Opposing forces
Prof Zharkova and her team discovered a new wave of fluid activity deep in the Sun, as a result of its magnetic field. In fact, it seems that the pairs of magnetic waves affect the internal structure of the Sun, which is composed of two different layers. It seems that these layers’ normal movement is in phase, oscillating between the Sun’s northern and southern hemispheres. However, between the years of 2030 and 2040, the oscillations of these two fluid components are predicted to be completely out of phase with each other. But is this enough reason to predict an ice age?
An accurate model
Comparing the current activity of the Sun with that of the movement of the two solar dynamos, the new model’s accuracy was as high as 97%. More explicitly – even though mind-blowing – when the two waves oscillate in phase, they interact with each other strongly, leading to maximums of solar activity and high temperatures on Earth. Conversely, the opposite happens during phase separation and solar minimums. Still, why should the ice occur in the northern hemisphere only? If you haven’t ruled out the possibility that “Frozen” might have jinxed the weather changes, Prof Zharkova provides the answer one more time: look at the Earth’s magnetic winds – the actual explanation is too long. This being said, we are looking forward to hearing the accompanying energy-saving solutions to this ice age’s effect on our lives.
