What is the name of the Sun's complete 22-year magnetic cycle?

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The Sun’s complete 22-year magnetic cycle is called the Hale cycle.

The Sun’s more familiar sunspot cycle lasts about 11 years. During that interval, sunspot activity rises and falls, while the Sun’s large-scale magnetic field reverses polarity near solar maximum. After the next 11-year cycle, the field returns to its original orientation, completing the roughly 22-year Hale cycle.

The cycle is named for American astronomer George Ellery Hale, whose work in the early 20th century showed that sunspots are strongly magnetized. Hale’s observations also revealed that the magnetic polarity pattern of sunspot groups flips from one 11-year cycle to the next.

A common mix-up is calling the 22-year cycle the solar or Schwabe cycle. Those names generally refer to the approximately 11-year sunspot cycle, while the Hale cycle includes two such cycles and tracks the full magnetic polarity pattern. The Maunder Minimum was a historical period of unusually low sunspot activity, not the name of the regular magnetic cycle.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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