Sunspot Min in Max / Reasons?

About 2 weeks ago there was a major sunspot which caused auroras over
many parts of NA, Europe. We are in solar minimum. but has it happened
before that such large sunspots appear in the minimum time period? any
speculations?

bucko

"bucko" wrote in message
...
About 2 weeks ago there was a major sunspot which caused auroras over
many parts of NA, Europe. We are in solar minimum. but has it happened
before that such large sunspots appear in the minimum time period? any
speculations?

bucko
First thing to remember, is that we only have a very 'short' baseline of
sunspot data regarding the Sun. The sunspot 'cycle', is just the result of
observations that the frequency of sunspots decreases and increases over
this timescale, for the observation period concerned. There is evidence in
the fossil record, that the Sun also goes through much longer term
variations in overall 'output', and these changes almost certainly include
variations in the sunspot frequencies as well, but while the fossil record
can show climatological changes, it does not make any recording of sunspot
activity. In a few thousand years, we might be able to say whether this is
unusual or not, but it is more probable that the relatively stable period
was the unusual time...

Best Wishes