Anxiety about Great Famine in Japan Accompanied by the Great Sunspot Activity

[摘要] Greater and greatest sunspot activity periods were experienced for years 1770_??_1790, 1830_??_1845, and 1865_??_1880, during which famous Japanese famine known as Tenmei famine, Tenpo famine and Keiõ-Meiji famine occurred respectively. Such great famines were caused by very bad crops of rice in 2 or 3 consecutive years in the above periods. The 4th great spot activity is now going on. The mean annual sunspot relative number for 1948 was about 153 and the mean for 9 months in 1949 was about 154, while that in 1778, 1837, and 1870 were respectively 154.4, 138.3 and 139.1. From analogy of those past experiences, we are compelled to be anxious about similar worst rice crops which will be taken place in some future years during coming 15 years in which next spot minimum and maximum periods will occur.

[学科分类] 大气科学