Image of late August 2020 cycle 25 active region with a horseshoe shape!
Offical Cycle 25 Horseshoe Region
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According to NOAA and NASA, solar cycle 25 has officially been declared! At a recent media conference, the organizations announced that solar activity in cycle 24 officially hit the lowest point in December of 2019 which indicates the start of a new cycle. This cycles is forecast to be similar to cycle 24 and will be relatively tame compared to other modern cycles that have been observed. This cycle transition can also be defined by a reversal in leading polarity in observed active regions, which the XRT team noted back in November 2019. Since we are now about 9 months into cycle 25, we can expect to see an increase in sunspots, active regions, and overall solar activity. While the region pictured above from late August was never officially given an AR number designation, it was the largest region (by area) of activity observed so far in cycle 25. While other regions have been stronger and produced higher energy flares, this region spanned over half the visible solar disk with an interesting horseshoe shape. As we move further into cycle 25, we can expect more and more regions of impressive size and strength to be observed. Keywords: Solar Cycle, Full Disk Filters: Al_Poly |
(Prepared by Lucas Guliano)
The XRT instrument team is comprised of SAO, NASA, JAXA, and NAOJ.
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