An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The periodic variation in frequency or number of solar active events (→ sunspots, → prominences, → flares, and other solar activity) occurring with an interval of about 11 years. The solar cycle was discovered in 1843 by Samuel Heinrich Schwabe (1789-1875), a German apothecary and amateur astronomer, who after 17 years of observations noticed a periodic variation in the average number of sunspots seen from year to year on the solar disk. Solar cycle numbering goes back to the 18-th century, when the Cycle 1 peak occurred in 1760. Cycle 23 peaked in 2000, and the following Cycle 24 will reach its maximum in 2013.

→ solar; → cycle.