The Sun’s magnetic poles are gradually disappearing, but there’s no need for alarm

Scientists say the reversal of the sun’s magnetic poles usually heralds the arrival of solar maximum, where the number of sunspots will begin to decrease. This aligns with previous predictions that this solar cycle will be relatively weak, although possibly slightly stronger than the last solar cycle which peaked in April 2014. “It now looks like the polar magnetic field reversal will occur in 2024. The maximum of the solar cycle could occur in 2024,” Upton said. “All of this is very standard, typical alignment. Actually, the sun is performing quite well this cycle.”

In the coming years, sunspots will continue to add their residual magnetism to the growing new charge pool at the sun’s poles, strengthening the new magnetic field, and recreating the dipole state last seen in 2019. This dipole state will emerge around the turn of the 2030s. Around the solar minimum, scientists will also begin predicting what might happen in the next solar cycle, which will peak in the mid-2030s.

But for now, scientists are keenly watching the development of this polar reversal. Hoeksema said, “Seeing how it unfolds is always interesting, it never happens the same way twice.”