Solar Cycle 25 Is Here. NASA, NOAA Scientists Explain What This Means

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

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

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

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

B-roll of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado. The Space Weather Prediction Center, or SWPC, is the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts.

Credit: NOAA

Some solar eruptions create bursts of solar energetic particles. The high-energy solar radiation can impact humans and sensitive electronics aboard satellites, as shown in this conceptual animation.

Credit: NASA

Images from NOAA’s GOES-16/SUVI show a coronal mass ejection on Sept. 10, 2017.

Images from NOAA’s GOES-16/SUVI show a coronal mass ejection on July 28, 2017.

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

Conceptual animation of the GOES-R spacecraft. This animation depicts the spacecraft on orbit.

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NOAA, Lockheed Martin

Launch footage for NOAA’s COSMIC-2, a mission of six satellites designed to improve weather forecasts and space weather monitoring. COSMIC-2 launched in June 2019.

Credit: NOAA and SpaceX

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

This animation illustrates one aspect of the Sun-Earth connection: a burst of solar wind leaves the Sun and reaches Earth, where it undergoes magnetic reconnection, producing aurora.

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

A video tracks a coronal mass ejection’s path from the Sun to Earth, using images from NASA’s STEREO satellite.

Credit: NASA/SwRI/STEREO

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

Artist’s rendition of a solar storm hitting Mars and stripping ions from the upper atmosphere.

Credit: NASA

This visualization presents orbits of the current heliophysics satellites covering the space near Earth, through the solar system, and concluding with a view of the Voyagers, just outside the heliopause.

Credit: NASA

Illustration of NASA’s heliophysics fleet.

Credit: NASA/Jenny Mottar

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.

Artist interpretation of flying by Earth, the sun, and heliopause. Solar wind—the constantly blowing stream of charged particles from the Sun—fills space throughout the solar system.

Credit: NASA

An artist’s interpretation of a solar eruption, including a solar flare, coronal mass ejection, and solar energetic particle event.

Credit: NASA

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

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