The Recent Solar Minimum

This article in Scientific American summarizes some of the findings presented at the most recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The topic was the solar minimum, the time when sun spot and other solar activity is at a low ebb.

Everyone agrees the most recent solar minimum was the lowest on record. I particularly like the article's conclusion, given by Frank Hill, of the National Solar Observatory:

My main impression of all this is I'm gratified to see that we all agree that this is an interesting minimum. What's not so gratifying is we have no clue why any of these effects are happening.

"No clue" suggests that we be more than a little cautious about solar-influenced climatic predictions such as "global warming" here on Earth.