The UK was treated to a stunning display of the Northern Lights last night with the natural phenomenon visible as far south as London and Kent.
Stunning pictures captured the aurora borealis across the UK as it filled the sky with pink and green hues.
The Northern Lights, most closely associated with the Arctic and other countries closer to the poles, are visible further south at the moment thanks to a geomagnetic storm raging in the atmosphere.
Plus, it was a clear and cloudless night for many last night, making it even easier to spot the aurora borealis.
Two solar flares erupted from the sun last week, and it’s thought the Earth ‘clipped the edge’ of the two flares, creating the geomagnetic storm which signals the arrival of the Northern Lights.
This latest arrival of the aurora was caused by a fast coronal mass ejection – also known as a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field – which left the sun on Wednesday, causing severe geomagnetic storms.
We’ve been lucky enough to see more of the aurora borealis in recent months, most notably in May, because the sun is currently in a more active part of its cycle.
The sun’s cycle lasts for about 11 years as its magnetic fields flip, and during the ‘solar maximum’ phase, there are many more solar flares and solar storms, meaning the Northern Lights appear much further south than they normally would.
But don’t get complacent about seeing the aurora borealis, because it’s hard to tell when the ‘solar maximum’ will end and solar activity will start to decrease again.
And it looks like the chances of seeing the Northern Lights will be getting much slimmer tonight.
The Met Office’s latest space weather forecast says: ‘The chances of aurora remain initially, though gradually easing through October 11, becoming increasingly confined to far northern geomagnetic latitudes by October 13.’
On top of that, the atmospheric weather forecast says we’ll be seeing ‘rain across Scotland and Northern Ireland becoming more widespread through the night, although far north clearer with the odd wintry shower’ – which doesn’t sound promising for the clear conditions required to spot the aurora.
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