I am also unfamiliar with Express.co.uk. The article seemed adequate:
Quote:
Martin Mlynczak of NASA's Langley Research Center told CBN: "We see a cooling trend.
"High above Earth's surface, near the edge of space, our atmosphere is losing heat energy.
“If current trends continue, it could soon set a Space Age record for cold.
"The thermosphere always cools off during Solar Minimum. It's one of the most important ways the solar cycle affects our planet.”
NASA's states on its website: “All weather on Earth, from the surface of the planet out into space, begins with the Sun.
“Space weather and terrestrial weather (the weather we feel at the surface) are influenced by the small changes the Sun undergoes during its solar cycle.”
The space agency adds on its Thermosphere Climate Index (TCI) “a weather metric that tells us how the top of Earth's atmosphere (or 'thermosphere') is responding to solar activity” that “the top of Earth's atmosphere is approximately 10 times cooler than it was during the record-setting Solar Max of 1957-58.”
The Sun was not expected to head into a solar minimum until around 2020, and if it is heading in early, it will mean a prolonged cold snap.
The last time there was a prolonged solar minimum, it led to a ‘mini ice-age’, scientifically known as the Maunder minimum - which lasted for 70 years.
The Maunder minimum, which saw seven decades of freezing weather, began in 1645 and lasted through to 1715, and happened when sunspots were exceedingly rare.
During this period, temperatures dropped globally by 1.3 degrees celsius leading to shorter seasons and ultimately food shortages.
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I cannot find much about Martin Mlynczak or the TCI, but apparently he and his colleagues introduced it here: "We therefore propose a new index, the Thermosphere Climate Index (TCI)"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681456/
This is the page they quote:
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/impacts/sp...mpacts-climate
I cannot find the Thermosphere Climate Index, although I found another article that included Mr. Mlynczak:
"The time series cover nearly 5 years from 2002 through 2006. The infrared and
solar time series exhibit a decrease in radiated and absorbed power consistent with the declining
phase of the current 11-year solar cycle."
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/c...0080021262.pdf
Apparently, it contains each word from that title, but not the complete phrase.
Here is the article at CBN:
https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2...-what-it-means
So, someone at CBN interviewed somebody at NASA and only a few places are reporting on it. They do not know about it? It does not fit their agenda? They are too busy trying out new selfie filters?
I do not have any idea.
While trying to find confirmation for all of that I found this:
https://sputniknews.com/us/201811151...Camp-Wildfire/