The Solar Retrograde Cycle And Little Ice Ages

As Robert Felix mentions in his book Not by Fire but by Ice:

According to studies by Rhodes W. Fairbridge and John E. Sanders of Columbia University, these alignments cause what is known as the solar retrograde cycle. This cycle involves changes in both solar spin rate and solar output (solar output declines abruptly). The retrograde motion itself is produced by the gravitational pull of the planets; primarily Saturn and Jupiter. When Saturn and Jupiter are both in the same quadrant of the solar system they exert a greater pull on the sun. The cycle is undeniable. “Solar cyclicity must now be considered as being a fact of life,” said the two Professors Emeritus. (Both Fairbridge and Sanders were Professors Emeritus of Geology at Columbia University. Each of them published extensively in geology and astronomy)

Below is a longer excerpt from Not by Fire but by Ice concerning the solar retrograde cycle:

Previously, I mentioned the Little Ice Age, which began in the early 1600s. What I didn’t mention, is that little ice ages recur in cycles. Pioneering studies by Rhodes W. Fairbridge and John E. Sanders of Columbia University show that our climate oscillates – warm to cold, cold to warm – in a dependable, predictable cycle, becoming much cooler and wetter every 178.73 (±0.27) years.

The cycle is caused by the sun’s retrograde, or clockwise, motion around the center of mass – the barycenter – of the solar system. Called the solar retrograde cycle, this cycle involves changes in both solar spin rate and solar output (solar output declines abruptly). The retrograde motion itself is produced by the gravitational pull of the planets; primarily Saturn and Jupiter. When Saturn and Jupiter are both in the same quadrant of the solar system they exert a greater pull on the sun. The cycle is undeniable. “Solar cyclicity must now be considered as being a fact of life,” said the two Professors Emeritus. (Both Fairbridge and Sanders were Professors Emeritus of Geology at Columbia University. Each of them published extensively in geology and astronomy.

Probably the most important figure in solar retrograde field was the late Dr. Theodor Landscheidt, founder of the Schroeter Institute for Research in Cycles of Solar Activity in Waldmuenchen, Germany. Dr. Landscheit began publishing his results in 1976.

On earth, the solar retrograde cycle triggers fluctuations in geomagnetic-field intensity while causing abrupt – and extreme – changes in climate. The changes are so severe that at every other beat of the cycle – approximately every 360 years – the earth plunges into a Little Ice Age.

This cycle has plagued our planet for hundreds of millions of years.

“The 360-year Little Ice Age cycle shows up in the Morrison Formation clear back in the Jurassic,” says research geologist Jack Sauers. “It correlates with the fall of the Roman Empire. It correlates with the fall of the Sumerian Empire. It correlates with the fall of the Ottoman Empire (when Ghengis Kahn swept out of the north). It correlates with the fall of the Greek Empire. And it is now coinciding with the collapse of several modern-day empires.”

Unfortunately, the last beat of the Little Ice Age cycle occurred almost exactly 360 years ago. “If this pattern holds,” said Fairbridge and Sanders, “then a comparable Little Ice Age can be expected to begin . . . early in the twenty-first century.”

But wait. It gets worse. Multiply the Little Ice Age cycle by four, and you get a 1440-year cycle of even harsher climate conditions. This cycle, discovered in the Greenland Ice Sheet, was reported by Paul Mayewski et al. in 1997. (Journal of Geophysical Research, 30 Nov 1997)

The 1440-year cycle brings with it “dramatic and rapid” changes in climate (dry in some areas, wet in others) and worldwide glacier expansion. The cycle appears to be related to internal oscillations in the ocean-climate system, says Mayewski (which I attribute to underwater volcanism, triggered by changes in geomagnetic intensity, triggered by the changes in the sun).

Whatever causes it, a similar 1440-year cycle has been found in North Atlantic deep sea cores (Bond et al., Science, 14 Nov 1997). Our climate plunged into frigid conditions about 4200 years ago, said Bond. Similar declines occurred about 2800 years ago and 1400 years ago, which means – you guessed it – that the next beat of the 1400-year cycle is due.

As if that weren’t enough, multiply the 1440-year cycle by eight, and you come up with 11,520, which is suspiciously close to the 11,500-year ice-age cycle.

So here we sit. The next beat of the 179-year solar retrograde cycle is due. The next beat of the 360-year Little Ice Age cycle is due. The next beat of the 1440-year ice-age cycle is due. The next beat of the 11,500-year ice-age cycle is due. The next beat of the 100,000-year ice-age cycle is due . . . and we’re worried about global warming?

It’s ludicrous to be worried about global warming.

We must prepare for an ice age. As Fairbridge and Sanders put it, “Nature’s dice really are somewhat loaded.” If we can heed the lessons of history writ so clearly in the geologic record, maybe we can reload those dice in our favor.

–By Robert Felix, Not by Fire but by Ice

The COLD TIMES are returning, the mid-latitudes are REFREEZING in line with historically low solar activity, cloud-nucleating Cosmic Rays, and a meridional jet stream flow.

Both NOAA and NASA appear to agree, if you read between the lines, with NOAA saying we’re entering a ‘full-blown’ Grand Solar Minimum in the late-2020s, and NASA seeing this upcoming solar cycle (25) as “the weakest of the past 200 years”, with the agency correlating previous solar shutdowns to prolonged periods of global cooling here.

Furthermore, we can’t ignore the slew of new scientific papers stating the immense impact The Beaufort Gyre could have on the Gulf Stream, and therefore the climate overall.