Maunder Minimum
E676078
The Maunder Minimum was a prolonged period of drastically reduced sunspot activity from about 1645 to 1715, associated with notably colder climatic conditions during the coldest phase of the Little Ice Age.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Maunder Minimum canonical | 6 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7581613 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Maunder Minimum Context triple: [Little Ice Age, hasPart, Maunder Minimum]
-
A.
Spörer Minimum
The Spörer Minimum was a prolonged period of unusually low solar activity from roughly 1460 to 1550, associated with cooler global temperatures during the Little Ice Age.
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B.
Aurora Triumphans
Aurora Triumphans is a symbolist Pre-Raphaelite painting by Evelyn De Morgan that depicts the triumph of spiritual light and awakening over darkness.
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C.
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age was a period of cooler global temperatures and glacial expansion, roughly from the 14th to the mid-19th century, that significantly affected climate, agriculture, and societies, especially in the Northern Hemisphere.
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D.
Saros cycle
The Saros cycle is an approximately 18-year period after which nearly identical solar and lunar eclipses repeat, due to the alignment of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
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E.
Eliassen–Palm flux
Eliassen–Palm flux is a fundamental concept in atmospheric dynamics that quantifies the transport of wave activity and momentum by large-scale atmospheric waves, crucial for understanding the general circulation of the atmosphere.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Maunder Minimum Target entity description: The Maunder Minimum was a prolonged period of drastically reduced sunspot activity from about 1645 to 1715, associated with notably colder climatic conditions during the coldest phase of the Little Ice Age.
-
A.
Spörer Minimum
The Spörer Minimum was a prolonged period of unusually low solar activity from roughly 1460 to 1550, associated with cooler global temperatures during the Little Ice Age.
-
B.
Aurora Triumphans
Aurora Triumphans is a symbolist Pre-Raphaelite painting by Evelyn De Morgan that depicts the triumph of spiritual light and awakening over darkness.
-
C.
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age was a period of cooler global temperatures and glacial expansion, roughly from the 14th to the mid-19th century, that significantly affected climate, agriculture, and societies, especially in the Northern Hemisphere.
-
D.
Saros cycle
The Saros cycle is an approximately 18-year period after which nearly identical solar and lunar eclipses repeat, due to the alignment of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
-
E.
Eliassen–Palm flux
Eliassen–Palm flux is a fundamental concept in atmospheric dynamics that quantifies the transport of wave activity and momentum by large-scale atmospheric waves, crucial for understanding the general circulation of the atmosphere.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | solar minimum ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Little Ice Age
ⓘ
colder climatic conditions in Europe ⓘ colder climatic conditions in North America ⓘ |
| characterizedBy |
drastically reduced sunspot counts
ⓘ
frequent absence of visible sunspots ⓘ reduced solar irradiance ⓘ |
| comparedTo |
Dalton Minimum
ⓘ
Spörer Minimum ⓘ |
| discoveredBy | Edward Walter Maunder ⓘ |
| documentedIn |
cosmogenic isotope records
ⓘ
historical sunspot observations ⓘ |
| endTime | 1715 ⓘ |
| fieldOfStudy |
astrophysics
ⓘ
climatology ⓘ paleoclimatology ⓘ solar physics ⓘ |
| followedBy | recovery of sunspot activity in the early 18th century ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName | prolonged sunspot minimum of 1645–1715 ⓘ |
| hasCauseHypothesis | changes in the solar dynamo ⓘ |
| hasConsequence |
advance of some mountain glaciers
ⓘ
cooler average temperatures in some regions ⓘ increased frequency of severe winters in parts of Europe ⓘ |
| hasDuration | approximately 70 years ⓘ |
| hasEffectOn | Earth climate ⓘ |
| hasPart | prolonged reduction in sunspot activity ⓘ |
| hasResearchTopic |
impact on regional climate anomalies
ⓘ
mechanisms of solar dynamo suppression ⓘ role in historical climate variability ⓘ |
| identifiedBy | Edward Walter Maunder ⓘ |
| influences |
models of solar variability
ⓘ
studies of solar–climate relationships ⓘ understanding of grand solar minima ⓘ |
| locationOfObservation | Royal Observatory, Greenwich ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Edward Walter Maunder ⓘ |
| overlapsWith | coldest phase of the Little Ice Age ⓘ |
| partOf |
grand solar minima
ⓘ
long-term solar activity variations ⓘ |
| precededBy | normal sunspot activity in the early 17th century ⓘ |
| startTime | 1645 ⓘ |
| temporalLocationWithin | Little Ice Age ⓘ |
| timePeriod | mid-17th century to early 18th century ⓘ |
| usesMeasurement |
beryllium-10 in ice cores
ⓘ
carbon-14 in tree rings ⓘ sunspot number ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Maunder Minimum Description of subject: The Maunder Minimum was a prolonged period of drastically reduced sunspot activity from about 1645 to 1715, associated with notably colder climatic conditions during the coldest phase of the Little Ice Age.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.