Solar Cycle 25 Commencement Confirmed

A short while ago, I posted a link to news that Solar Cycle 25 was probably arriving very soon - as early as summer 2018.   This was a follow-on to earlier news about the first signs of Cycle 25 spots being seen by the Royal Observatory of Belgium at the end of 2016.

Now, more solid evidence of Cycle 25 having started emerges, this time from the University of Berkeley.  This builds on a close monitoring of new sunspots by Jan Alvestad.

The Sun today (16/04/2018).  Image: NASA SDO.

As I write, the solar disk images are showing another spot group appearing on the limb, which is more clearly seen in this image at 94 Angstroms:

It seems that we really are now at the bottom of the cycle, and that - perhaps - by the end of 2018, we may, just may, see a turn towards better conditions on the HF bands.