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3-11 10-6 Solar cycle 20: 1964 – Oct 14.3 1968 – Nov 157 86 4-1 11-5 Solar cycle 21: 1976 – Mar 17.8 1979 – Dec 233 111 3-9 10-6 Solar cycle 22: 1986 – Sep 13.5 1989 – Nov 213 106 3-2 9-11 Solar cycle 23: 1996 – Aug 11.2 2001 – Nov 180 82 5-3 12-4 Solar cycle 24: 2008 – Dec 2.2 2014 – Apr 116 49 5-4 11-0 Solar cycle 25: 2019 ...
The sun emits the largest solar flare of this 11-year cycle, as imaged by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on October 3. NASA/SDO NASA says the sun is in the highly active "maximum phase" of its ...
The 11-year activity cycle of the Sun is tied to the number of sunspots, which in turn are linked to the intensity of space weather, including solar flare activity from the star.
Solar cycle 23 lasted 11.6 years, beginning in May 1996 and ending in January 2008. The maximum smoothed sunspot number (monthly number of sunspots averaged over a twelve-month period) observed during the solar cycle was 120.8 (March 2000), and the minimum was 1.7. [29] A total of 805 days had no sunspots during this cycle. [30] [31] [32]
Their number varies according to the approximately 11-year solar cycle. Individual sunspots or groups of sunspots may last anywhere from a few days to a few months, but eventually decay. Sunspots expand and contract as they move across the surface of the Sun, with diameters ranging from 16 km (10 mi) [3] to 160,000 km (100,000 mi). [4]
The sun will reach solar maximum, or a peak in activity across its 11-year cycle, about a year sooner than originally predicted. Auroras, solar flares and space weather are all expected to increase.
Solar maximum is the regular period of greatest solar activity during the Sun's 11-year solar cycle. During solar maximum, large numbers of sunspots appear, and the solar irradiance output grows by about 0.07%. [2] On average, the solar cycle takes about 11 years to go from one solar maximum to the next, with duration observed varying from 9 to ...
This index (also known as the Zürich number) uses both the number of sunspots and the number of sunspot groups to compensate for measurement variations. A 2003 study found that sunspots had been more frequent since the 1940s than in the previous 1150 years. [30] Sunspots usually appear as pairs with opposite magnetic polarity. [31]