Solar & space-weather phenomenon · Solar source
The Solar Cycle
The roughly eleven-year rise and fall of the Sun's activity, traced by the number of sunspots from solar minimum to solar maximum and back. Its underlying magnetic cycle takes about twenty-two years, as the Sun's polarity flips and returns. Activity — flares, CMEs, and storms — peaks near solar maximum.
Highlights
- ›The ~11-year heartbeat of solar activity
Drivers, environments & assets
Across space weather
Knowledge connections
- Associated withThe Sun
- Associated withSunspots
- Associated withSolar Flare
- Associated withCoronal Mass Ejection (CME)
- Associated withSunspots
- Associated withThe Solar Dynamo
- Associated withThe Butterfly Diagram
- Associated withThe Maunder Minimum
- Associated withThe Dalton Minimum
- Associated withSolar Irradiance Variation
Sources
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NOAA SWPCNOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
Space-weather forecasts and alerts: aurora (OVATION), the Kp index, and the G1–G5 geomagnetic storm scale.