The reduced amount of solar energy reaching the Earth due to a nearly spotless sun appears to have had a temporary dampening effect on global warming, scientists say.

Speaking at an American Astronomical Society gathering in Boulder, Colorado, Rachel Howe and Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory demonstrated how they observed the sluggish solar jet at their facility near Tucson.

They say that while it has taken three years for the jet to drift the same distance that it did over two years during the previous cycle, it appears to be reaching a critical point at which its influence will allow sunspots from the new cycle to emerge more frequently.

The current solar minimum has been so protracted that it prompted some scientists to speculate that the sun might enter a long period with no sunspot activity at all, similar to the Maunder Minimum of the 17th century.

This new result dispells those concerns. The sun's internal magnetic dynamo is still operating, and the sunspot cycle is not "broken," the scientists say.

Image: Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)