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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]
Following is a comparison of the growth of cycle 25 versus cycle 24, using the 13-month sunspot averages, beginning with the months of the respective minimums. Numbers in brackets for cycle 25 indicate the minimum possible value for that month, assuming there are no more sunspots between now (Jan 3, 2024) and six months after the end of the ...
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 ...
The Sun has reached a period of peak activity in an 11-year cycle known as the Solar Maximum, ... The past two years marked the active phase of the solar cycle with a higher number of sunspots.
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 ...
Since Hale's law states that the leading magnetic polarities in each hemisphere alternate between sunspot cycles, it takes two full cycles for the leading polarities to return to their original pattern. This indicates that the approximately 11-year sunspot cycle is one-half of a 22-year magnetic cycle, which is sometimes referred to as a Hale ...
At a solar-cycle minimum, the toroidal field is, correspondingly, at minimum strength, sunspots are few in number, and the poloidal field is at its maximum strength. With the rise of the next 11-year sunspot cycle, magnetic energy shifts back from the poloidal to the toroidal field, but with a polarity that is opposite to the previous cycle.
The 11-year solar cycle of sunspot activity appears in a small number of works such as Clifford D. Simak's 1940 short story "Sunspot Purge" and Philip Latham's 1959 short story "Disturbing Sun". [4] [5] In Robert A. Heinlein's 1952 short story "The Year of the Jackpot", this cycle is one of many that herald the end of the world when they align.