[SFDXA] How Come...? New Cycle?

[Bill]

/I just sent the Propagation Report. Some weeks I don't get it so you 
don't see it. I scan them as you all probably do too.  Sometimes I don't 
read them at all.

In this report I thought there was something interesting and copied it 
as a separate note(in case you skipped over it)
Bill W2CQ
/*
**Steven Rudnick, W1KYB of Santa Fe, New Mexico asked, "How did they
come to the conclusion that we are in a new cycle when the sunspot
number has been 0 for 27 days now?"

They probably looked at a couple of factors. One is the polarity of
sunspots. As the Sun transitions from one cycle to the next, the
polarity of sunspots changes. It starts with a few sunspots having
opposite polarity from sunspots in the recent cycle, then gradually
it shifts so eventually the majority have the new cycle polarity.

The other factor is the smoothed sunspot number, which is an average
based on an entire year of sunspot numbers. This reduces the noise
in the numbers, so it is easier to see the trends.

The smoothed sunspot number for December 2019 would be based on the
monthly sunspot numbers for approximately July 2019 through July
2020.*