Quick Look at Current Cycle 25 Conditions:
(Data rounded to nearest whole number)
Sunspots:
Observed Monthly, November 2022: 78
12-month smoothed, May 2022: 77
10.7-cm Flux:
Observed Monthly, November 2022: 124
12-month smoothed, May 2022: 119
Solar Cycle 25 began in December 2019 and is expected to peak in 2025, according to the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel, an international group of experts co-sponsored by NASA and NOAA. Specifically, December 2019 was the solar minimum or period of least solar activity between the approximate 11-year cycles of the Sun — between Solar Cycle 24 and Cycle 25.
The previous cycle, the 24th observed since the start of daily observations of the Sun in 1755, lasted 11 years (December 2008 to 2019), which is the average length of a cycle. Cycle 24 was the weakest cycle in terms of solar activity in 100 years. The solar maximum — the peak of Cycle 24 — was in April 2014 with the sunspot count (averaged and smoothed) peaking at 114.
Look at the two charts in and — the Sunspot Count comparison chart, and the F10.7-cm
