Start date September 1784 Duration (years) 13.7 Max count month February 1788 | End date May 1798 Max count 141.2 Min count 3.2 | |
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Solar cycle 4 was the fourth solar cycle since 1755, when extensive recording of solar sunspot activity began. The solar cycle lasted 13.7 years, beginning in September 1784 and ending in May 1798 (thus overlapping the Dalton Minimum). The maximum smoothed sunspot number (monthly number of sunspots averaged over a twelve-month period) observed during the solar cycle was 141.2 (in February 1788), and the minimum was 3.2.
There are some recent speculations that cycle 4, the longest solar cycle since 1755, was actually two cycles, based on the appearance of new sunspots at high solar latitudes in 1793-1796 and a reconstruction of the sunspot butterfly diagram for cycles 3 and 4, although total sunspot numbers only show a single-peaked distribution.