Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
Representatives from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the international Solar Cycle Prediction panel met on Tuesday and announced that the Sun has reached its solar maximum.
The solar cycle is 11 years. At the height of the cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip and its activity intensifies.
“During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore, the amount of solar activity, increases,” says Jamie Favors, the director of NASA’s Space Weather Program. “This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star –but also causes real effects at Earth and throughout our solar system.”
Increased solar activity can affect satellites and astronauts in space, as well as communications and navigation systems.
Solar flares and coronal mass ejections increased in May 2024. It led to the one of the strongest auroras displays of the past 500 years.
“This announcement doesn’t mean that this is the peak of solar activity we’ll see this solar cycle,” says Elsayed Talaat, director of space weather operations at NOAA. “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.”
It is believed that the solar maximum in this cycle will last for about another year before the Sun’s activity recedes again.
Solar cycles have been tracked since the mid 18th century when German amateur astronomer Heinrich Schwabe took the first extensive census of sunspots. This is the 25th of the 11-year cycle that has been monitored by astronomers.
“Solar Cycle 25 sunspot activity has slightly exceeded expectations,” says Lisa Upton, co-chair of the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel and lead scientist at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. “However, despite seeing a few large storms, they aren’t larger than what we might expect during the maximum phase of the cycle.”
