Is the solar cycle still a puzzle?

Abstract

The solar magnetic cycle affects all levels of the Sun including the convection zone, photosphere, chromosphere and corona. Recent advances in solar space missions (Yohkoh, SOHO and others) and, also, ground-based observations provide us an excellent opportunity to investigate solar magnetic activity in detail, and to draw a new picture of the solar magnetic cycle. Magnetic field appears on the solar surface as a result dynamo processes in the convection zone, and forms bipolar complexes of solar activity. These complexes can be seen in the photosphere as dark sunspots surrounded by the bright plages extended into chromosphere, with arcades of coronal loops best observed in EUV and soft X-rays. The coronal loops reflect the large-scale magnetic structure of complexes of activity. The new data reveal fundamental changes in the magnetic topology during the solar cycle, and details of the polar magnetic field reversals occurring near the sunspot maximum. The solar synoptic maps obtained from the photospheric and coronal data display a close correlation between the erupted magnetic flux and coronal emissions and show large-scale magnetic connectivities. The brief review of solar cycle studies is presented.