The prelude to the deep minimum between solar cycles 23 and 24: Interplanetary scintillation signatures in the inner heliosphere

Extensive interplanetary scintillation (IPS) observations at 327 MHz obtained between 1983 and 2009 clearly show a steady and significant drop in the turbulence levels in the entire inner heliosphere starting from around ∼1995. We believe that this large‐scale IPS signature, in the inner heliosphere, coupled with the fact that solar polar fields have also been declining since ∼1995, provide a consistent result showing that the buildup to the deepest minimum in 100 years actually began more than a decade earlier.