Our Sun Has Entered a New Cycle, And It Could Be One of The Strongest Ever Recorded

Science Alert  December 8, 2020
According to an international team of researchers (USA – NCAR, University of Maryland, UK) over the course of about 20 years or so, flickers of extreme ultraviolet light called coronal bright points seem to move from the poles towards the equator, meeting in the middle and cancelling out, referred to as terminator. At this point the new cycle begins. From the 270-year long observational record of terminator events, they see that the longer the time between terminators, the weaker the next cycle and conversely, the shorter the time between terminators, the stronger the next solar cycle is. According to the researchers the next maximum in its activity cycles could be the one of the strongest we have seen. The current weak Sunspot Cycle 25, as the community is predicting, would be a complete departure from everything that their data analysis has shown us up to this point…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE 

Credit: Scott McIntosh/NCAR