Current Solar Cycle 25 on the Eve of the Maximum Phase

Abstract

Since January 2020, the current solar cycle 25 has begun. Its development in the first four years, according to the Gnevyshev–Ohl rule, brought it into the family of medium-sized cycles. In November 2023, it entered the maximum phase. Therefore, the maximum of the current cycle should take place no later than June 2024 with the expected value of the relative number of sunspots W* = 100+/–10 (150+/–15 in the V2 system). The minimum of the current cycle should be expected in the first half of 2031, and the course of its development on the growth branch shows that it fits into the characteristics of average solar cycles of the epoch of lowered solar activity on the growth branch with its own features. This confirms the stability of the scenario of solar cyclicity for the last ~190 years, which provides for a change in the level of sunspot activity in different epochs of solar activity, increased or lowered, with clearly distinguished transition periods, as a consequence of regular changes in the mode of generation of the total solar magnetic field, with a duration of ~5 cycles.