View source for Modern Maximum

{{Short description|Period of high solar activity beginning in 1914}}
{{cite check|date=October 2021}}
[[Image:Sunspot Numbers.png|thumb|upright=1.5|History of [[sunspot number]] observations showing the recent elevated activity.]]
The '''Modern Maximum''' was found by [[Sami Solanki]], [[Ilya G. Usoskin]] and colleagues<ref name="Solanski2004">{{Cite journal |first1 = Sami K.|last1 = Solanki|author-link = Sami Solanki|first2 = Ilya G.|last2 = Usoskin|first3 = Bernd|last3 = Kromer|first4 = Manfred|last4 = Schüssler|first5 = Jürg|last5 = Beer|title = Unusual activity of the Sun during recent decades compared to the previous 11,000 years|journal = Nature|volume = 431|year = 2004|pages = 1084–7|url = http://cc.oulu.fi/%7Eusoskin/personal/nature02995.pdf|doi = 10.1038/nature02995|accessdate = 17 April 2007|pmid = 15510145|issue = 7012|bibcode = 2004Natur.431.1084S| s2cid=4373732 }}, {{cite web |title = 11,000 Year Sunspot Number Reconstruction|work = Global Change Master Directory|url = http://gcmd.nasa.gov/KeywordSearch/Metadata.do?Portal=GCMD&KeywordPath=%5BParameters%3ACategory%3D%27EARTH+SCIENCE%27%2CTopic%3D%27SUN-EARTH+INTERACTIONS%27%2CTerm%3D%27SOLAR+ACTIVITY%27%2CVariable%3D%27SUNSPOTS%27%5D&OrigMetadataNode=GCMD&EntryId=NOAA_NCDC_PALEO_2005-015&MetadataView=Brief&MetadataType=0&lbnode=gcmd3b|accessdate = 2005-03-11}}</ref> as the period of unusually high [[sun|solar]] activity<ref>{{cite journal |author = Usoskin I.G. | author-link=Ilya G. Usoskin|title = A History of Solar Activity over Millennia|journal = Living Reviews in Solar Physics|volume = 14|issue = 3|pages = 3|date = 2017|doi = 10.1007/s41116-017-0006-9|bibcode = 2017LRSP...14....3U |arxiv = 0810.3972| s2cid=195340740 }} [https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs41116-017-0006-9.pdf PDF Copy]</ref> which began with [[solar cycle 15]] in 1914. It reached a maximum in [[solar cycle 19]] during the late 1950s and may have ended with the peak of [[solar cycle 23]] in 2000, as [[solar cycle 24]] is recording, at best, very muted solar activity.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1023/A:1012745612022| year = 2001| last2 =    Echer| last3 =    Vieira| last4 =    Nordemann| pages = 179–191| volume = 203| issue = 1| last1 = Rigozo| first2 = E.| first3 = L. E. A.| first4 = D. J. R.| journal = Solar Physics| first1 = N. R.| title = Reconstruction of Wolf Sunspot Numbers on the Basis of Spectral Characteristics and Estimates of Associated Radio Flux and Solar Wind Parameters for the Last Millennium|bibcode = 2001SoPh..203..179R | s2cid = 117574927}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=October 2021}}{{update inline|date=August 2024}} Another proposed end date for the maximum is 2007, with the decline phase of Cycle 23.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}} In any case the low solar activity of solar cycle 24 in the 2010s marked a new period of reduced solar activity.  However the on-going (as of 2025) [[solar cycle 25]] significantly exceeded its predicted low maximum.<ref>[https://climateimpactcompany.com/solar-cycle-25-continues-to-strengthen-rapidly-3/ Solar Cycle 25 Continues to Strengthen Rapidly]</ref>

This maximum period is a natural example of [[solar variation]], and one of many that are known from proxy records of past solar variability. The Modern Maximum reached a double peak once in the 1950s and again during the 1990s.

==See also==
* [[Maunder minimum]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1914 beginnings]]
[[Category:2000 endings]]
[[Category:20th-century meteorology]]
[[Category:2000s  meteorology]]
[[Category:Solar phenomena]]


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