Solar cycle characteristics and their application in the prediction of cycle 25

The Solar Influences Data Analysis Center (SIDC) issued a new version (version 2) of the sunspot number data in July 2015. The 13-month smoothed monthly sunspot number from the new version is used for the first time to research the relations among the feature parameters of solar cycles under the bimodal distribution for the modern era cycles (10–23), and, their physical implications are discussed. These relations are utilized to predict the maximum amplitude of solar cycle 25. Cycle 25 is predicted to start in October 2020 and reach its maximum amplitude of 168.5 ± 16.3 in October 2024, thus, it should be stronger than cycle 24 but weaker than cycle 23.