There will be increased activity with Northern Lights

Not a "Latest Photos" but an interresting thing for the ones planning to come to visit us this winter:

From NRK news:
Scientists world over have observed spots on the sun that can provide more northern lights next winter

The sun spot we have seen is a good sign that there is now increasing sun activity and better than the auroral activity it has used to be the last couple years, said Truls Lynne Hansen at Northern observatory in Tromsø. According to Hansen there has been record-breaking low sun activity the last year, but now the trend is about to change. And even if it does not help for the summer weather, is good news for those who want to see the northern lights for the winter.

Have been dead ..
The sun activity is measured in how many so-called sun spots observed on the sun. There are dark spots on the surface of the sun that is evidence of high magnetic activity. These spots have been more or less absent in recent years. - The sun has been pretty dead. It has been one hundred years since the last time it was so quiet. And even if we in the northern areas always see some northern lights, it has been less than usual, he said.

.. but has woken to life
The sun follows usually an activity cycle of about eleven years. After several years of low activity the trend should reversed towards the end of 2008, but it didn't. Researchers around the world began to worry about when, or if it at all it would happen. But then the sun suddenly woke up to life again last weekend, Hansen says.
- We have now seen that the sun has a large sun spot again. It has lasted a very long time before the activity picked up, but it seems that things are becoming normal in the sense that the Sun activity increases again.