An interesting academic paper

 This is an interesting paper: Influence of the Schwabe/Hale solar cycles on climate change during the Maunder Minimum
Authors: Hiroko Miyahara, Yusuke Yokoyama, and Yasuhiko T.
Yamaguchi published 2009

A trace showing sunspot activity and cosmic ray intensity. Cosmic rays are very high energy (short wavelength) Electromagnetic radiation similar to Gamma rays and X-rays. Some of them have enough energy to convert Nitrogen-14 into Carbon-14. Carbon-14 is radioactive and it decays with a half-life of about 5700 years.

One subtlety that might slip by the causal reader is that there is substantial variation within any given period. That is, the raw data trace is fuzzy.

If you have access to samples of wood of a known age, say the beams in the roof of a cathedral or a temple or palace, then you can take core-samples and test them for C-14 and determine if it is higher-or-lower than what you would expect given their age.

The authors of this paper link sunspots to the spectral output of the sun. Fewer sunspots means more cosmic ray output. The next image suggests that more cosmic ray output came at the expense of electromagnetic radiation in the visual and IR spectrum.

The time-frame circled with red corresponds to the Maunder Minimum

Tucked in the tail-feathers of this paper is a graphic that suggests that long periods with no sunspots has a historical precedent.

Weather is chaotic and the time-horizons defy easy human understanding.

In a stunning coincidence

Airbus is performing major software maintenance on the Airbus 320 due to anomalies that have been linked to CME scrambling sensor data.