The northern lights dance over Sweden

A beautiful time lapse shows the aurora borealis taking over the Swedish skies.

As we get closer to next year's solar maximum — that is, the peak period of solar activity that occurs every 11 years — one of the most noticeable changes we will see here on Earth is an increase in aurora activity.

It's already happening, in fact; as the year's end draws closer, more reports of aurora around the world are surfacing.

This video took place during the second week in December, over the Abisko National Park north of Sweden, in the province of Lapland. Captured by Chad Blakley of Lights Over Lapland, which specialises in aurora photography and aurora tours, it shows a time lapse of the northern lights dancing in the skies.

British actor Alec Guinness said in his memoir My Name Escapes Me that the aurora borealis was one of the best things he had ever seen, and that he'd dearly love to see it once more before he died. Watching this video, we think we'd have to agree that it is spectacular.

For some reason, the time lapse only takes up about 30 seconds of the below 1-minute, 37-second video. Feel free to turn it off after the credits.