Northern Lights set to light up the sky – Will they be visible tonight?
The Northern Lights were on show again across most of the UK last night even spreading as far south Norfolk.
The Aurora Borealis, which is usually only visible near the Arctic Circle, could be seen over parts of the UK last night, and are predicted to show again this evening.
Northern Scotland, North Wales and even parts of Norfolk got a sight of the Northern Lights on Friday evening.
It was a result of ‘severe geomagnetic storms’ which are expected to decline today.
Friday also marked the Spring Equinox, which weather forecasters believe could have contributed them for being seen even in England.
Will the Northern Lights be visible tonight?
If you missed them last night, do not fret too much. The Met Office has confirmed the lights ‘may still be visible’ tonight.
A phenomenon known as the Russell-McPherron effect can make the Northern Lights stronger around the equinoxes, as the Earth’s magnetic field is aligned with the incoming solar winds.
The Met Office said in a post on x: ‘Keep an eye out as there is a chance of seeing the northern lights over the next couple of nights.
‘Sightings are most likely across Scotland where skies are clear but perhaps into northern England too.’
Why are we seeing the Northern Lights so often lately?
Usually, you can only see the aurora in Iceland, Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska. But over the last year, a strangely wide swath of the Northern Hemisphere’s sky has been lit up with this brilliant show of colour.
‘The reason we are seeing more northern lights events, the aurora borealis, here in the UK is that we are near a solar maximum,’ explains Jo Farrow, a forecaster for the independent meteorological service, Netweather.
A solar maximum is a period during the sun’s 11-year cycle when the celestial body is especially pumped up.
What causes the Northern Lights?
The Earth has a magnetic field that helps keep all kinds of space junk and gunk away – think of it like an apple wrapped in cling film.
One thing the magnetic field helps repel are particles, including the blobs of plasma spat out by the sun.
As nuclear reactions occur on the sun, it regularly coughs up material from its surface.
This wind travels through space at breakneck speeds up to 45 million mph. If any crash into Earth’s upper atmosphere, they bounce off the planet’s magnetic field and are thrown towards the poles.
Every particle glows different colours. Take oxygen, which has a greenish hue to it, or red-coloured nitrogen.
When all these colourful particles collide with the particles already trapped around Earth’s magnetic field, this causes them to light up.
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