>>12489966Thank you for the archive. The only relevant details are as follows:
McIntosh has set about trying to figure out how the sun’s “internal magnetic machine” works. He deduced that there are as many as four main magnetic bands that encircle the sun at any one time. Sunspots, he argues, are the result of interference and overlap between those bands.
McIntosh postulates that there may not be just one cycle that accounts for sunspot activity but, in fact, several, connected to one of those four main magnetic bands. He thinks they all overlap in different ways, their peaks slightly misaligned. The frequency of sunspots we see is the product of how those subcycles interact.
McIntosh enlisted the help of plasma fusion scientists to review past data and come up with the math to predict what sunspot patterns may arise in the years ahead.
[What does it mean when the sun is spotless and serene?]
Only time will tell if McIntosh’s predictions for an active Solar Cycle 25 are borne out. He says “the proof is in the pudding.”
