SCIENCE BRIEFING
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Times Staff and Wire Reports
The sun has been unusually quiet lately, with fewer sunspots and weaker magnetic fields than in nearly a century.
A quiet sun is good for Earth: GPS systems are more accurate; satellites stay in orbit longer; even the effects of human-caused global warming are marginally reduced, though just by three-tenths of a degree at most.
It’s all a normal part of the strange but regular cycles of the sun’s activity. Scientists don’t know why it happens, but for humankind, they say, it’s probably a good thing.
