Hiya Hugh

Just a reminder, those rapid fluctuations in the chart don't actually indicate changes in strength, they are due to cyclical variation in the perspective of the Sun when viewed from Earth, due to our orbit and the Sun's axial tilt.

When looking at the graph, think of this image of a satellite's cyclical perspective as it orbits Earth: [link to www.scibuff.com]

Most of the "up and down" movement in Leif's chart is not an actual change in polar strength, but rather simply an indication of the movement of Earth around the Sun, and the changing perspectives that that combined with the Sun's axial tilt offers us.

"The Sun's rotation axis is tilted by about 7.25 degrees from the axis of the Earth's orbit so we see more of the Sun's north pole in September of each year and more of its south pole in March." [link to solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov]

So you have to look for major deviations from the previous repeating cycle to see actual changes in the strength. It's rather hard to explain, but I hope you follow me here.

With that in mind, the North pole hasn't actually quite flipped yet, as you can see on the chart the polemost readings are still barely hovering in negative polarity. But from the context of previous "rotations", we can see that the polemost region is weakening each pass, so this next pass of the Sun's northern polemost region may indeed confirm a flip.

If anyone needs further clarification of how to read the chart just let me know... I'm glad people are using it it's a lovely chart... just a little confusing by necessity.

(Sorry for length)