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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 ...
One historical long-term correlation between solar activity and climate change is the 1645–1715 Maunder minimum, a period of little or no sunspot activity which partially overlapped the "Little Ice Age" during which cold weather prevailed in Europe. The Little Ice Age encompassed roughly the 16th to the 19th centuries.
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] Larger sunspots can be visible from Earth without the aid of a telescope. [5]
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.
The Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel predicted in December 2019 [11] that solar cycle 25 will be similar to solar cycle 24, with the preceding solar cycle minimum in April 2020 (± 6 months), and the number of sunspots reaching a (smoothed) maximum of 115 in July 2025 (± 8 months).
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]
The date of the minimum is described by a smoothed average over 12 months of sunspot activity, so identifying the date of the solar minimum usually can only happen 6 months after the minimum takes place. Solar minimum is contrasted with the solar maximum, when hundreds of sunspots may occur.
An active region containing a single sunspot or group of sunspots all having the same magnetic polarity. An opposite polarity counterpart is still present, but is weak or not concentrated enough to form sunspots. β: An active region with at least two sunspots or sunspot groups that have opposite magnetic polarity.