Solar Cycle 25 Is Here. NASA, NOAA Scientists Explain What This Means
A new solar cycle comes roughly every 11 years. Over the course of each cycle, the star transitions from relatively calm to active and stormy, and then quiet again; at its peak, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip. Now that the star has passed solar minimum, scientists expect the Sun will grow increasingly active in the months and years to come.
Understanding the Sun’s behavior is an important part of life in our solar system. The Sun’s outbursts—including eruptions known as solar flares and coronal mass ejections—can disturb the satellites and communications signals traveling around Earth, or one day, Artemis astronauts exploring distant worlds. Scientists study the solar cycle so we can better predict solar activity.
Click here for the NOAA press kit.
Listen to the media telecon.
Participants:
• Lisa Upton, Co-chair, Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel; Solar Physicist, Space Systems Research Corporation
• Doug Biesecker, Solar Physicist, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center; Co-chair, Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel
• Elsayed Talaat, Director, Office of Projects, Planning and Analysis; NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service
• Lika Guhathakurta, Heliophysicist, Heliophysics Division, NASA Headquarters
• Jake Bleacher, Chief Exploration Scientist, NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate
1. STILL IMAGE
Sunspot number over the past five solar cycles. Scientists use sunspots to track solar cycle progress; the dark spots are associated with solar activity, often as the origins for giant explosions — such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections — which can spew light, energy, and solar material out into space.
The panel consulted monthly updates in sunspot number data from the World Data Center for the Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations, at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, which tracks sunspots and pinpoints the highs and lows of the solar cycle.
Credit: SILSO data/image, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels
2. VIDEO
Images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory highlight the appearance of the Sun at solar minimum (left, Dec. 2019) versus solar maximum (right, April 2014). These images are in the 171 wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, which reveals the active regions on the Sun that are more common during solar maximum.
Credit: NASA
3. STILL IMAGE
Visible light images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory highlight the appearance of the Sun at solar minimum (left, Dec. 2019) versus solar maximum (right, July 2014). During solar minimum, the Sun is often spotless. Sunspots are associated with solar activity, and are used to track solar cycle progress.
Credit: NASA
4. STILL IMAGE
Scientists use the unique magnetic orientation of sunspots to determine which cycle they belong to — the old or the new. This SILSO graph shows counts of Cycle 24 and Cycle 25 sunspots from 2018-2020. The dominance of new Cycle 25 sunspots is one indication of the transition between the two cycles. Most sunspots belonged to the last solar cycle until September 2019; the dominance of Cycle 25 sunspots occurred in November 2019.
Credit: SILSO/Royal Observatory of Belgium
9. STILL IMAGE
Illustration of NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On. The L-1 observatory launches in 2024, just before the Solar Cycle 25 predicted peak. The spacecraft will be equipped with instruments that sample the solar wind, provide imagery of coronal mass ejections, and monitor other extreme activity from the Sun in finer detail than before.
Credit: Ball Aerospace
12. VIDEO
Images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory capture transient solar activity, including solar flares, prominences, and coronal mass ejections. Solar activity shapes space weather throughout the solar system, referring to the conditions in space that change much like weather we experience on Earth.
Credit: NASA
15. VIDEO
Images from NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft allow scientists to trace the anatomy of a December 2008 coronal mass ejection as it moves and evolves on its journey from the Sun to the Earth. The gauge shows solar wind density measured by NASA's WIND spacecraft near Earth.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/SwRI/STEREO/WIND
19. STILL IMAGE
Graphic shows sunspot counts from the past six solar cycles plotted vertically instead of horizontally. High sunspot numbers are in red (right); low sunspot numbers are in blue (left). Various space weather impacts are listed, as they are associated with times of high and low solar activity.
22. VIDEO
Animated b-roll of NASA Artemis launch and lunar approach. Space weather predictions will be critical for supporting spacecraft and astronauts in the Artemis program.
Credit: NASA
23. VIDEO
Animated b-roll of NASA Gateway/Commercial Lunar Payload Services. The first two science investigations to be conducted from the Gateway in lunar orbit will study space weather and monitor the radiation environment there.
Credit: NASA
For More Information
See Solar Cycle 25 Is Here. NASA, NOAA Scientists Explain What That Means
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Producers
- Joy Ng (KBRwyle)
- Karen Fox (ADNET)
- Kathalina Tran (SGT)
Technical support
- Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Related pages
The Solar Cycle As Seen From Space
Sept. 17th, 2020
Read moreVIDEO IN ENGLISH Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.The Sun is stirring from its latest slumber. As sunspots and flares, signs of a new solar cycle, bubble from the Sun’s surface, scientists are anticipating a flurry of solar activity over the next few years. Roughly every 11 years, at the height of this cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip—on Earth, that’d be like the North and South Poles’ swapping places every decade—and the Sun transitions from sluggish to active and stormy. At its quietest, the Sun is at solar minimum; during solar maximum, the Sun blazes with bright flares and solar eruptions. In this video, view the Sun's disk from our space telescopes as it transitions from minimum to maximum in the solar cycle.Music credit: "Observance" by Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS] from Universal Production Music VIDEO EN ESPAÑOLMira este video en el canal NASA en Español en YouTube.El ciclo solar visto desde el espacioEl Sol se está despertando de su último sueño. A medida que las manchas y las fulguraciones solares, señales de un nuevo ciclo solar, burbujean en la superficie del Sol, los científicos anticipan una oleada de actividad solar durante los próximos años. Aproximadamente cada 11 años, en el punto álgido de este ciclo, los polos magnéticos del Sol se desplazan — en la Tierra sería como si se diera un intercambio de los polos norte y sur cada década — y el Sol pasa de estar aletargado a activo y tormentoso. En su momento más tranquilo, el Sol se encuentra en el mínimo solar; durante el máximo solar, el Sol brilla con fulguraciones brillantes y erupciones solares. En este video, observa el disco del Sol visto mediante nuestros telescopios espaciales a medida que pasa del mínimo al máximo en el ciclo solar.Crédito de música: "Observance" por Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS] de Universal Production Music Related pages
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Sept. 15th, 2020
Read moreWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available.Music credits: “Infinite” by Joseph Pincus [ASCAP]; “Reflective Sensations”, “Ideas For Tomorrow”, “Think Tank” by Laurent Dury [SACEM]; “Wonderful Orbit” by Tom Furse Fairfax Cowan [PRS] Sunspot number over the past five solar cycles. Scientists use sunspots to track solar cycle progress; the dark spots are associated with solar activity, often as the origins for giant explosions — such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections — which can spew light, energy, and solar material out into space.The panel consulted monthly updates in sunspot number data from the World Data Center for the Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations, at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, which tracks sunspots and pinpoints the highs and lows of the solar cycle.Credit: SILSO data/image, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels A collection of sunspot drawings during the last solar maximum in 2014 from The Uccle Solar Equatorial Table, Royal Observatory of Belgium.Credit: USET data/image, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels A new solar cycle comes roughly every 11 years. Over the course of each cycle, the Sun transitions from relatively calm to active and stormy, and then quiet again; at its peak, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip. Now that the star has passed solar minimum, scientists expect the Sun will grow increasingly active in the months and years to come.Understanding the Sun’s behavior is an important part of life in our solar system. The Sun’s outbursts—including eruptions known as solar flares and coronal mass ejections—can disturb the satellites and communications signals traveling around Earth, or one day, Artemis astronauts exploring distant worlds. Scientists study the solar cycle so we can better predict solar activity. As of 2020, the Sun has begun to shake off the sleep of minimum, which occurred in December 2019, and Solar Cycle 25 is underway. Scientists use several indicators to track solar cycle progress. For More InformationSee [How Scientists Around the World Track the Solar Cycle](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/how-scientists-around-world-track-solar-cycle-sunspots-sun) Related pages
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Sept. 11th, 2020
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