Solar wind

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth" is what I thought when I read this morning about the solar wind being weaker than at any time since accurate observations began in the 1950s. Scientists are divided about the impact of the solar wind (which is a stream of electrically charged particles) on the climate down here on Earth. Some say that a quieter sun causes a cooler earth and cite the suspension of the solar cycle between 1645-1715, known as the Maunder Minimum when there were very few sunspots and it was the coldest part of the past millennium on earth. Others say that this is the calm before the next solar storm which could cause considerable disruption. They cite the storm of August 1859 when the Northern Lights were visible as far south as the tropics and the world's nascent telegraph network was inactivated for several hours. Anyway, nobody's blaming it on the credit crunch, yet.