Northern Lights could return to UK in ‘once in a decade’ event
A ‘once in a decade’ solar event take place over the next few months – and it means you’ll get even more chances to see the Northern Lights.
The neon spaghetti strings of green, red and blue have become an increasingly common occurrence in, of all places, people’s back gardens in London this year.
But the Met Office say that the lights will be visible farther south more frequently next year because of a shift in the sun’s magnetic fields.
Every 11 years or so, the sun’s magnetic fields flip over. We’re now approaching the tail end of this process, called the solar maximum when the sun gets especially revved up and spits out all sorts of solar goo at us.
When all this sun gunk, called solar flares, splatters onto the earth, this causes the northern lights.
‘While it’s not possible to know precisely what this means for individual Earth-directed solar events, it does mean there will likely be further chances of aurora visibility in the UK in the coming months,’ says Krista Hammond, of the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre (MOSWOC).
‘While we’re in the solar maximum phase now, which could last a year, it’s not possible to know exactly when the number of sunspots peaked until some time after it has happened.’
The northern lights, or aurora borealis, are caused when atoms get a little too excited by solar winds smashing into the Earth’s magnetic field.
Electrons get so excited in fact that they release light – the oxygen in the atmosphere makes this light green or red, while nitrogen tinges it blue.
In recent months, there’s been a fair few solar flares causing geomagnetic storms, hence why we’ve been seeing the auroras in the UK so much.
When the night skies above Britain were lit up by the lights in May, this was down to what the Met Office says was ‘the strongest geomagnetic storm on Earth in two decades’.
‘A similar, though less strong, event reached Earth earlier in October, providing aurora visibility as far south as parts of central and southern England and Wales,’ the weather service adds.
Now the sun reaching solar maximum means the auroral oval, or the area on Earth where the lights are visible, will widen even more.
The Met Office, citing data from NASA, didn’t give an exact date of when this will happen. AuroraWatch UK, which tracks the phenomena, says there is ‘no significant’ chance of the northern lights today.
Though scientists generally agree the solar maximum will be reached next year. Even outside of the solar maximum, the best seasons to see the aurora are spring and autumn, especially close to the equinoxes.
Not all good things can last forever, however. The solar minimum will soon begin when to put it one way, the sun is especially quiet.
What are the Northern Lights?
The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are the names given to the curtains of colourful light that can appear in the night sky over the northern hemisphere.
They are a natural light display caused by charged particles from the Sun interacting with Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere.
These particles are carried by solar wind and are funneled toward the polar regions, where they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere.
The collisions release energy in the form of light, creating shimmering displays in green, red, blue, and purple.
Green is the most common colour. It comes from oxygen at lower altitudes, while red and blue are produced by oxygen and nitrogen at different heights.
With fewer solar flares or coronal mass ejections happening, the chances of catching a viewing of the aurora borealis will be lower than average, though it doesn’t mean it won’t be visible at all.
‘While the total number of sunspots will start to reduce after solar maximum, we will continue to see space weather throughout the solar cycle, even as overall activity declines,’ adds Hammond.
‘Indeed, in some solar cycles, the larger events can happen as the Sun transitions back towards solar minimum.’
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