Solar cycle 12 is the twelfth solar cycle

Solar cycle

The solar cycle, or the solar magnetic activity cycle, is a periodic change in the amount of irradiation from the Sun that is experienced on Earth. It has a period of about 11 years, and is one component of solar variation, the other being aperiodic fluctuations. Solar variation causes changes in...

 since 1755, when recording of solar sunspot

Sunspot

Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear visibly as dark spots compared to surrounding regions. They are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection by an effect comparable to the eddy current brake, forming areas of reduced surface temperature....

 activity began. The solar cycle lasted 11.3 years, beginning in December 1878 and ending in March 1890. The maximum smoothed sunspot number (monthly number of sunspots averaged over a twelve month period) observed during the solar cycle was 74.6, and the minimum was 5. There were a total of approximately 736 days with no sunspots during this cycle. A very bright blood-red aurora display happened over New York on April 16, 1882, while significant communication disturbances occurred.

See also

• Aurora of November 17, 1882
  Aurora of November 17, 1882
  The Aurora of November 17, 1882 was a geomagnetic storm and associated aurora event, widely reported in the media of the time. It occurred during an extended period of strong geomagnetic activity in solar cycle 12....
  
  
• List of solar cycles
• Solar variation
  Solar variation
  Solar variation is the change in the amount of radiation emitted by the Sun and in its spectral distribution over years to millennia. These variations have periodic components, the main one being the approximately 11-year solar cycle . The changes also have aperiodic fluctuations...
  
  
• Sunspot
  Sunspot
  Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear visibly as dark spots compared to surrounding regions. They are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection by an effect comparable to the eddy current brake, forming areas of reduced surface temperature....