  The maximum phase of the solar cycle is characterized by several interesting
features in the solar activity, heliospheric characteristics and the galactic
cosmic ray (GCR) intensity. Recently the maximum phase of the current solar
cycle (SC) 24, in many relations anomalous when compared with solar cycles of
the second half of the 20-th century, came to the end. The corresponding phase
in the GCR intensity cycle is also in progress. In this paper we study
different aspects of the sunspot, heliospheric and GCR behavior around this
phase. Our main conclusions are as follows: 1) The maximum phase of the sunspot
SC 24 ended in 06.2014, the development of the sunspot cycle being similar to
those of SC 14, 15 (the Glaisberg minimum). The maximum phase of SC 24 in the
GCR intensity is still in progress. 2) The inversion of the heliospheric
magnetic field consists of three stages, characterized by the appearance of the
global heliospheric current sheet (HCS), connecting all longitudes. In two
transition dipole stages beside the global HCS there are additional local HCSs,
while the inversion stage lies between two transition dipole ones and there is
no global HCS in this stage. The inversion stage of the current SC 24 is the
longest when compared with those for SC 21-23. The second transition dipole
stage and hence the whole inversion period of the heliospheric magnetic field
in SC 24 provisionally ended in 08.2014. 3) The behavior of the GCR intensity
in the period of the sunspot maximum phase and the inversion of the
heliospheric magnetic fields for SC 21-23 demonstrates all the characteristic
features for this period: the two-gap structure corresponding to two-peak
structure in the sunspot activity, and the energy hysteresis. In the current SC
24 the GCR intensity shows rather unusual features and we should wait for one
or even two years to see the whole picture.
