This page features our predictions and forecasts for the Sun. We also show our predictions for the evolution of the Sun's polar magnetic fields for the endof Solar Cycle 24, which were used to predict the amplitude of Cycle 25. Currently, we have Solar Cycle predictions for Solar Cycles 24 and 25 (cycle amplitude and F10.7 flux). NASA’s forecast for the next solar cycle (25) reveals it will be the weakest of the last 200 years. The NOAA/NASA co-chaired international panel to forecast Solar Cycle 25 released a preliminary forecast for Solar Cycle 25 on April 5, 2019. “We expect Solar Cycle 25 will be very similar to Cycle 24: another fairly weak cycle, preceded by a long, deep minimum,” said panel co-chair Lisa Upton, Ph.D., solar physicist with Space Systems Research Corp. It is expected that sunspot maximum will occur no earlier than the year 2023 and no later than 2026 with a minimum peak sunspot number of 95 and a maximum of 130. Solar Cycle 24 activity has peaked and it is on its way to a minimum. Because normal Cycle life is nominally 11 years, start of Cycle 25 should be in 2019, The Sunspot number (Wolf number 30 … The chart on this page shows the sunspot numbers since 1749. The panel agreed that Cycle 25 will be average in intensity and similar to Cycle 24. Thus, it appears that the ISSN is still decreasing, and the next minimum is expected in the near future to occur. 2 and 3 in Usoskin & Mursula 2003). The “official” solar cycle forecast includes the month, year, and intensity of that maximum (peak, average sunspot number). The first sunspot of cycle 25 has already appeared on the solar disc 1 and currently we are observing an overlap period when two neighbouring solar cycles progress simultaneously (see fig. How that value translates to peak amplitude of Solar Cycle 25 is shown in the following graphic:
However: The current cycle 24 (which began in 2008—two years late) has been very strange. The panel has high confidence that the coming cycle should break the trend of weakening solar activity seen over the past four cycles. predicting the sun's "weather" is hazardous to scientist's reputations - which is why the recently concluded solar cycle 25 prediction panel was done in secret with no media coverage here is a blow up (of the chart above) of what the top government scientists are saying solar cycle 25 will look like according to their… Of course the exact date of the minimum and the start of Solar Cycle 25 is not known.
Solar cycle, period of about 11 years in which fluctuations in the number and size of sunspots and solar prominences are repeated. The forecast consensus: a peak in July, 2025 (+/- 8 months), with a smoothed sunspot number (SSN) of 115. That's when the extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began. This is well below the average number of sunspots, which typically ranges from 140 to 220 sunspots per solar cycle.” The consensus: Cycle 25 will be similar in size to cycle 24.