Global Warming Explained

Sunspot cycles, notice how they have been building for the last 80 years. Click here for more.

Butterfly diagram showing paired Spörer's law behavior. At the start of a sunspot cycle, sunspots tend to appear around 30° to 45° latitude on the Sun's surface. As the cycle progresses, sunspots appear at lower and lower latitudes, until they average 15° at solar maximum. The average latitude of sunspots then continues to drift lower, down to about 7° and then while the old sunspot cycle fades, sunspots of the new cycle start appearing at high latitudes.