abstract:Solar minimum is the period of least solar activity in the 11 year solar cycle of the sun. During this time, sunspot and solar flare activity diminishes, and often does not occur for days at a time.
The sun has been in a particularly prolonged and deep solarminimum for the last couple of years, with fewer sunspots and solar storms erupting on its surface.
So the real controversy is what minimum level of solar energy at 65N is the threshold for the descent into an ice age and how unstable the weather becomes near that threshold.