I seem to have survived my first day at the AGU, including giving the invited talk which was the main reason I'm here in the first place.
So the question may be, has the Sun actually been behaving oddly since the turn of the millennium, or is it just that the Space Age and the start of modern observations coincided with a period of unusually high activity which is now reverting to normal? (As soon as we figure out what normal is anyway.) This reminds me rather of the theory I've heard somewhere, that the American West was colonized during an abnormally wet period that set up unrealistic expectations for how much water would be available long-term.
I spent the lunch break wandering around the Yerba Buena gardens, a quiet little oasis of grass and trees and water in the midst of a precipitous concrete-and-glass desert. It was disconcerting to see magnolia and azalea flowers in December; mind you, they did look rather as though they were regretting it. It wasn't very warm, and afterwards the only time I felt warm enough to take off my jacket all afternoon was when I had just had a cup of hot coffee. (I was very relieved that there was hot coffee; the AGU has a habit of serving only beer (and maybe soda) for the afternoon breaks.)
So the question may be, has the Sun actually been behaving oddly since the turn of the millennium, or is it just that the Space Age and the start of modern observations coincided with a period of unusually high activity which is now reverting to normal? (As soon as we figure out what normal is anyway.) This reminds me rather of the theory I've heard somewhere, that the American West was colonized during an abnormally wet period that set up unrealistic expectations for how much water would be available long-term.
I spent the lunch break wandering around the Yerba Buena gardens, a quiet little oasis of grass and trees and water in the midst of a precipitous concrete-and-glass desert. It was disconcerting to see magnolia and azalea flowers in December; mind you, they did look rather as though they were regretting it. It wasn't very warm, and afterwards the only time I felt warm enough to take off my jacket all afternoon was when I had just had a cup of hot coffee. (I was very relieved that there was hot coffee; the AGU has a habit of serving only beer (and maybe soda) for the afternoon breaks.)
