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Solar Cycles are well-understood 11 year periods over which solar activity predictably increases and decreases.
A comparison of Solar Activity at Solar Minimum and Solar Maximum. (Image Credit: NASA/SDO).
New Delhi: Two months after the highest number of sunspots were observed in the ongoing Solar Cycle, The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have declared that the solar activity has peaked for the ongoing Solar Cycle 25, which began in late 2019 and is expected to last till 2030. The peak in solar activity is expected to continue into next year, and solar activity may continue to be elevated for years. Solar Cycles are well-understood, roughly 11 year periodic variations during which magnetic activity of the Sun waxes and wanes, with the Sun going from a calm to stormy state during the peak, with solar activity gradually decreasing towards the end of the cycle.
A Solar Cycle is considered to have peaked when the highest number of sunspots are observed for that particular Solar Cycle. The previous Solar Cycle, Solar Cycle 25 actually had twin peaks in 2011 and in 2014. Clusters of sunspots known as active regions, are sites of massive solar outbursts including filament eruptions, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares. The 11 year cycles are also known as the Schwabe cycles, with other cycles of different periodicities also observed on the Sun, that are named after the scientists that discovered them.
The peak has yet to be resolved
The announcement just means that the Sun has reached the Solar Maximum, not that it has peaked in Solar Activity. Director of Space Weather operations at NOAA, Elsayed Talaat says, “This announcement doesn’t mean that this is the peak of solar activity we’ll see this solar cycle. While the Sun has reached the solar maximum period, the month that solar activity peaks on the Sun will not be identified for months or years.” Sound waves from deep within the Sun have already revealed hints of the next Solar Cycle.
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