Why so much solar activity? Sun may be outpacing predictions.

The headlines have been full of solar flares and storms as the solar cycle 25 is well under way.

Solar activity, which space weather experts measure by the number of visible sunspots, rises and falls on a cycle that lasts roughly 11 years from minimum to minimum, although one cycle can be as short as nine years or as long as 13. Although cycle 25 is expected to be stronger than its predecessor, it is still predicted to be feebler than average.

Mark Miesch, a space weather observer at the University of Colorado Boulder, told Space.com that there were a few predictions thatcycle 25 might be strong.

A strong X-class flare is sent toward Earth.

The intensity of cycle 25 might be higher than expected. The high activity is due to the fact that the cycle began around six months earlier than scientists had anticipated, according to Miesch, who told Space.com that this cycle is still within the range of most predictions.

The sun has about 125 sunspots when cycle 25 peaks. That is more than the 115 sunspots visible at the peak of cycle 24, but still less than the 180 sunspot peak of cycle 23, which was about average in recorded history.

The cycle 25 peak will likely occur around the same time as the total solar eclipse of April 2024, which will be visible from an arcs across North America. The corona is the outer atmosphere of the sun that we can see only when the moon blocks out the main disk.

We will have a pretty interesting corona to see during the eclipse.

Calculating the long-term trends that could drive these cycles is something that astronomer hope to gain more knowledge about. Even though scientists have compiled a continuous record of solar cycles back to the mid-18th century, with occasional data from well before that date, they still don't know much about how solar cycles change and evolve over the long term.

Over the past four solar cycles, each cycle has had a weaker peak than its predecessor.

It's not very common to have a trend last more than four solar cycles.

If the solar cycle 25 is stronger than the previous one, the trend of weakening would end. The theory holds that the peaks grow stronger and weaken in a pattern that repeats every century. The cycles of the early 20th and early 19th centuries were weak, but the cycles of the mid-20th century were strong.

It is too soon for scientists to have a consensus on the matter.

It takes 11 years to get one data point for solar cycle studies.

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