What could possibly be as exciting as weather history? Space weather history! Space weather is partly caused by activity on the surface of the sun, such as sun spots. The solar cycle is quite reliable, occurring typically once every 11 years. The following NASA chart illustrates the number of sunspots that occur each month.

The 2D chart shows the number of sunspots each month. Using the same data it is possible to illustrate the solar cycle as a 3D surface plot, by dividing up the time series by the number of months in a solar cycle. Months are shown on the the x-axis and cycle number on the y-axis. Each cycle lasts approximately 132 months, which is eleven years.

Adjust the number of months in each solar cycle by changing the value for cycle length, and see how the solar maximums line up differently in the chart.