Some may call it a slow news day, but the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) calls it the "top news of the day".

The Space Weather Prediction Center announced that as of today (15 Nov 2007)  all of its products concerning the 11-year solar cycle will include Solar Cycle 24.

November 15, 2007 -- The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has updated its solar cycle product to include the official prediction for the next solar cycle. The official International Space Environment Service (ISES) prediction for solar cycle 24 was released in early 2007. The ISES prediction was issued by a panel chaired by a SWPC representative. It is important to note the panel has only issued a preliminary prediction and has released two separate predictions; a high prediction for sunspot maximum of 140 and a low prediction for sunspot maximum of 90. In the official SWPC product, the average of the two predictions is used. In the near term the two predictions are very similar, with the average not differing from either prediction by more than a SSN of 1 until October, 2008.

The two individual predictions released by the panel are also available from the SWPC solar cycle web page. It is expected the panel will release a consensus ISES prediction sometime during the early phase of solar cycle 24. At that time, the SWPC product will again be updated with the new prediction. (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/WhatsNew.html)