PROPAGATION

A Quick Look at Current

Cycle 24-25 Conditions

(Data rounded to nearest whole number)

Sunspots:

Observed Monthly, October 2020: 13

12-month smoothed, April 2020: 4

10.7-cm Flux:

Observed Monthly, October 2020: 75

12-month smoothed, April 2020: 71

One Year Ago: A Quick Look at Current

Solar Cycle Conditions

(Data rounded to nearest whole number)

Sunspots:

Observed Monthly, October 2019: 0

12-month smoothed, April 2019: 3

10.7-cm Flux:

Observed Monthly, October 2019: 67

12-month smoothed, April 2019: 70

As we start out the new year of 2021, some of us continue the annual ritual of setting resolutions for ourselves. We hope that the new year affords us an opportunity to accomplish those goals that we’ve hoped to achieve for years. Some of us actually accomplish our lofty goals during the course of the year. Year after year, this cycle repeats itself. We resolve, we try, we look back (with regret or with pride), and then we do it again with the dawning of the next new year.

The Sun has its cycles, too. One of the best-known of these is the approximately 11-year cycle during which the sun changes its level of activity. This solar cycle is