On a Plausible Physical Mechanism Linking the Maunder Minimum to the Little Ice Age

Abstract

To understand better the Earth's climate, we need to know precisely how much radiation the Sun generates. We present here a simple physical mechanism describing the convective processes at the time of low sunspot activity. According to this model, the kinetic energy increased during the Maunder Minimum, causing a decrease of the solar radiation that was sufficient to produce a little Ice Age.