(Source: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory via Spaceweather Archive)
(Source: Spaceweather Archive via Michael Bird)
Nov. 1, 2019: Breaking a string of 28 spotless days, a new sunspot (AR2750) is emerging in the sun’s southern hemisphere–and it’s a member of the next solar cycle. A picture of the sunspot is inset in this magnetic map of the sun’s surface from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory:
How do we know AR2750 belongs to the next solar cycle? Its magnetic polarity tells us so. Southern sunspots from old Solar Cycle 24 have a -/+ polarity. This sunspot is the opposite: +/-. According to Hale’s Law, sunspots switch polarities from one solar cycle to the next. AR2750 is therefore a member of Solar Cycle 25.[…]
This is good commentary from a Canadian SWLer on this spot. It can have cycle 24 and cycle 25 spots happen at the same time for a while. At the end he says just turn on the radio and see what you can discover, especially lower bands.
https://youtu.be/r5s-izh-D1k
New Cycle sunspots also avoid the equatorial region. Very well might be the first one for cycle 25!