On the Possibility to Predict the Next Sunspot Maximum

In this work, we consider the Earth as a probe immersed in the solar wind, and use the AP index as a characteristic of the solar wind parameters. It has been established that the geomagnetic field reacts to solar coronal mass ejections (CME) and high-velocity solar wind fluxes (HSS). Previously, it was assumed that geomagnetic activity in the sunspot minimum was determined only by the time during which the Earth was under the influence of HSS or CME – in other words, the thickness of the heliospheric current layer. We have established that even in periods without HSS and CME, there is some non-zero geomagnetic activity, and this varies from cycle to cycle. Moreover, this activity depends on the characteristics of the slow solar wind. In this paper, we show that the number of sunspots at the maximum of the cycle is related to the state of the slow solar wind at the beginning of the cycle, and since the parameters of the slow solar wind can be judged by the average AP index for the specified interval, it can be used to determine the upcoming maximum of sunspots.