Sunspot surge

2009 is ending with a flurry of sunspots.

The month of December has had more 'spotted days' than any previous month of the year by a significant margin, and all of the month's sunspot groups have been members of new Solar Cycle 24.

Could this herald an end to the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century? That remains to be seen.

Sunspot counts and trends are shown on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com.