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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.
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 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 ...
In 2002, Lean et al. [41] stated that while "There is ... growing empirical evidence for the Sun's role in climate change on multiple time scales including the 11-year cycle", "changes in terrestrial proxies of solar activity (such as the 14C and 10Be cosmogenic isotopes and the aa geomagnetic index) can occur in the absence of long-term (i.e ...
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.
CMEs often form around sunspots, although scientists aren’t entirely sure why. Sunspot formation is cyclical, and the current solar cycle has reached the highest number of sunspots since 2001 ...
In 2006, NASA predicted that the next sunspot maximum would reach between 150 and 200 around the year 2011 (30–50% stronger than cycle 23), followed by a weak maximum at around 2022. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] Instead, the sunspot cycle in 2010 was still at its minimum, when it should have been near its maximum, demonstrating its unusual weakness.