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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 ...
The Solar cycle, also known as the solar magnetic activity cycle, sunspot cycle, or Schwabe cycle, is a periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity measured in terms of variations in the number of observed sunspots on the Sun's surface.
NASA says the sun is in the highly active "maximum phase" of its 11-year solar cycle.. That means there will probably be big solar storms bringing beautiful aurora in the next year or so. Solar ...
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 ...
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.
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 ...
Sunspot activity has been measured using the Wolf number for about 300 years. 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]
From 2007 to 2009, sunspot levels were far below average. In 2008, the Sun was spot-free 73 percent of the time, extreme even for a solar minimum. Only 1913 was more pronounced, with no sunspots for 85 percent of that year. The Sun continued to languish through mid-December 2009, when the largest group of sunspots to emerge for several years ...