Understanding the solar cycle and its impact on our climate and climate change

The Prairies Climate Change Project is a joint initiative between CBC Edmonton and CBC Saskatchewan that focuses on weather and our changing climate. Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga brings her expert voice to the conversation to help explain weather phenomena and climate change and how they impact everyday life.

As part of The Prairies Climate Change Project, we've been asking for your story ideas and questions. One that has repeatedly come up is around the solar cycle and in particular, how the sun ties into climate and climate change. 

As you can imagine, the answer is … complex.

We all know that the sun and weather go hand in hand. Without the sun there would be no life on Earth. But the sun is not completely consistent. It goes through cycles, sometimes with lots of activity, and other times with much less. 

Right now we are in Solar Cycle 25 — the 25th cycle since we began recording sunspot activity closely in 1755.

We are just climbing out of the sun's minimum activity toward its stormy season, set to peak in 2025. Forecasts show this solar maximum could be more active than others seen this century.

So as we close in on the peak in solar activity, what are the implications? And what is the connection between the sun's cycles and climate change?

The sun acts like a big magnet. It has its own magnetic field. That magnetic field is what drives the solar cycle. 

"The sun goes through active periods, quiet periods … just in the way the Earth does," says John Manuel, senior program scientist of solar terrestrial sciences at the Canadian Space Agency.

Watch | Want to know more about the solar cycle (we know you do!) and the impact on climate and climate change? This video will help unpack it all:

"As the solar wind that continually comes out of the sun blows past the Earth, it carries very energetic, very hot particles and magnetic fields which interact with the Earth."

The cycle of the sun is measured on roughly 11-year intervals. It begins and ends with quiet solar activity, with a maximum stormy season around the midway point.

At that time, the sun's magnetic field will completely flip — magnetic north becomes south or vice versa. The magnetic field will remain flipped until the next solar cycle's maximum.

During that stormy season, the surface of the sun is peppered with sunspots, cooler regions that can produce what we call space weather.