A SUNSPOT FROM THE NEXT SOLAR CYCLE: Solar Minimum won't last forever. In fact, the next solar cycle made a brief appearance this week. On July 1st, a small sunspot materialized in the sun's southern hemisphere (S21W02), then, hours later, vanished again. The polarity of its magnetic field marks it as a likely member of Solar Cycle 25:
Southern sunspots from old Solar Cycle 24 have a -/+ polarity. This ephemeral sunspot was the opposite: +/-. According to Hale's Law, sunspots switch polarities from one solar cycle to the next. The unnumbered sunspot appears to be a herald of Solar Cycle 25.
Solar cycles always mix together at their boundaries. Indeed, ephemeral sunspots belonging to Solar Cycle 25 have already been reported on Dec. 20, 2016; April 8, 2018; Nov. 17, 2018; and May 28, 2019. Now we can add July 1, 2019, to list. The transition between Solar Cycle 24 and Solar Cycle 25 appears to be underway.