Is a mini ICE AGE on the way? Scientists warn the sun will 'go to sleep' in 2030 and could cause temperatures to plummet

  • New study claims to have cracked predicting solar cycles 
  • Says that between 2030 and 2040 solar cycles will cancel each other out
  • Could lead to 'Maunder minimum' effect that saw River Thames freeze over 
By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com
Published: 13:40 EDT, 10 July 2015 | Updated: 16:42 EDT, 10 July 2015
The Earth could be headed for a 'mini ice age' researchers have warned.
A new study claims to have cracked predicting solar cycles - and says that between 2020 and 2030 solar cycles will cancel each other out.
This, they say, will lead to a phenomenon known as the 'Maunder minimum' - which has previously been known as a mini ice age when it hit between 1646 and 1715, even causing London's River Thames to freeze over.  
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A silent sun: In 2011 this image was captured showing an almost clear sun - which experts say could happen for almost a decade from 2030.
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A silent sun: In 2011 this image was captured showing an almost clear sun - which experts say could happen for almost a decade from 2030.

THE SOLAR CYCLE

Conventional wisdom holds that solar activity swings back and forth like a simple pendulum.
At one end of the cycle, there is a quiet time with few sunspots and flares.
At the other end, solar max brings high sunspot numbers and frequent solar storms.
It's a regular rhythm that repeats every 11 years.
Reality is more complicated.
Astronomers have been counting sunspots for centuries, and they have seen that the solar cycle is not perfectly regular.
The new model of the Sun's solar cycle is producing unprecedentedly accurate predictions of irregularities within the Sun's 11-year heartbeat.
It draws on dynamo effects in two layers of the Sun, one close to the surface and one deep within its convection zone.
Predictions from the model suggest that solar activity will fall by 60 per cent during the 2030s to conditions last seen during the 'mini ice age' that began in 1645, according to the results presented by Prof Valentina Zharkova at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno.
The model predicts that the pair of waves become increasingly offset during Cycle 25, which peaks in 2022.
During Cycle 26, which covers the decade from 2030-2040, the two waves will become exactly out of synch and this will cause a significant reduction in solar activity.
'In cycle 26, the two waves exactly mirror each other – peaking at the same time but in opposite hemispheres of the Sun,' said Zharkova. 
'Their interaction will be disruptive, or they will nearly cancel each other. 
'We predict that this will lead to the properties of a 'Maunder minimum''
'Effectively, when the waves are approximately in phase, they can show strong interaction, or resonance, and we have strong solar activity. 
'When they are out of phase, we have solar minimums. 
'When there is full phase separation, we have the conditions last seen during the Maunder minimum, 370 years ago.'