Ice Age will grip Earth in 15 years due to Sun's cooling: Russian scientists

Currently, solar activity is low. In a new, accurate model, experts suggest that magnetic activity will reduce by 60 per cent between 2030 and 2040.

This is something that has not been viewed since the mini ice age between 1645 and 1715 Maunder Minimum, an era when all of River Thames got frozen.

Examining the Sun's '11-year heartbeat' or the time taken for the magnetic activity to fluctuate, the model shows that the cycle was found 173 years ago.

Another model has been designed by a mathematician. It is more up-to-date, and can predict what the solar cycles will look like, based upon "dynamo effects" in double layers of the Sun.

What are Dynamo effects? These are part of a geophysical theory showing how the mobility of the Earth's outer core can transport materials like liquid iron across magnetic fields, creating an electric current. It also impacts fluid motion under the Earth, creating a couple of magnetic fields on the axis of the Earth's rotation.

By applying the theory to the Sun, Valentina Zharkova from Northumbria University forecast the effects of solar cycles.

Zharkova said at the National Astronomy Meeting: "We found magnetic wave components appearing in pairs, originating in two different layers in the Sun's interior. They both have a frequency of approximately 11 years, although this frequency is slightly different, and they are offset in time. Combining both waves together and comparing to real data for the current solar cycle, we found that our predictions showed an accuracy of 97 per cent."

She predicted that the coming cycle will peak in 2022. After that, Cycle 26 will usher in a new ice age.

She continued: "In Cycle 26, the two waves exactly mirror each other - peaking at the same time but in opposite hemispheres of the Sun. Their interaction will be disruptive, or they will nearly cancel each other. We predict that this will lead to the properties of a 'Maunder minimum'."

"Effectively, when the waves are approximately in phase, they can show strong interaction, or resonance, and we have strong solar activity.

"When they are out of phase, we have solar minimums. When there is full phase separation, we have the conditions last seen during the Maunder minimum, 370 years ago."