When the current solar cycle began in late 2019, experts from the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), which includes scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), predicted that solar maximum would likely begin sometime in 2025 and would be comparable to the previous, weaker cycle. However, as the current cycle progressed, it quickly became clear that this was not the case, and that solar maximum would occur earlier and be much more intense than initially anticipated.