Solar cycle
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- This article is about the sunspot cycle. For 28-year cycle of Julian calendar, see Solar cycle (calendar).
The Schwabe solar cycle or Schwabe-Wolf cycle is the eleven-year cycle of solar activity of the sun.
At periods of highest activity, known as solar maximum or solar max, sunspots appear. Periods of lowest activity are known as solar minimum. The last solar maximum was in 2001. The solar cycle is not strictly 11 years; it has been as short as 9 years and as long as 14 years in recent years.
As the image shows, the solar constant has varied by about 0.1% or 1 w/m² from its mean value of approximately 1366 w/m² over the last two solar cycles.
The Babcock Model explains the 11 and 22 year cycles as being due to a shedding of entangled magnetic fields.
For more details on solar cycles, see the solar variation article.
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