Northern lights seen across UK last night
If you follow me on Twitter, you will have seen that last night I tweeted there was a good chance of spotting the northern lights across the UK and Ireland.
Also known as the aurora borealis, the spectacular display of vibrant colours in the northern sky can produce shimmering green, red and purple colours.
They are caused by coronal mass ejections from the sun, which send charged particles – mainly electrons and protons – hurtling into earth’s upper atmosphere and causing a geomagnetic storm.
The Met Office’s space weather centre said that the geomagnetic storm was a G4, on a scale that goes from G1-G5, with G5 being the most active.
Northern lights on social media
According to the Met Office, the northern lights were seen as far south as Dorset and Bournemouth on Monday night, with a number of amazing pictures posted on Twitter.
@JanHattenbach @cosmos4u I captured the Aurora over Inis Oírr, Aran Islands tonight. Magic! pic.twitter.com/xEXcMtSwiS
— Cormac Coyne (@CormacCoyne) June 23, 2015
Aurora from the Great Orme. @supersnez @TamithaSkov @MidCheshAstro @Stephencheatley @Johnimus_Prime @ADavies915 pic.twitter.com/efVFYl7dQ5
— Jonathen Harty (@jonathenharty) June 23, 2015
#aurora borealis over #cork from #Cobh unedited straight off the camera pic.twitter.com/ZexwuLeJZi
— Rónán McLaughlin (@romclaughlin) June 23, 2015
Quick edit of last nights AURORA from Isle of Anglesey! @AngleseyScMedia @MidCheshAstro @jonathenharty @astroforfun pic.twitter.com/E8BgrMnIrC
— Tracey Snelus (@supersnez) June 23, 2015
Large solar storm brings spectacular views of the #aurora over the UK http://t.co/BQ5Jl3Hcj9 Photo by Richard Cliff pic.twitter.com/isNQ8qCjNx
— Met Office (@metoffice) June 23, 2015
Northern lights may return on Wednesday night
The Met Office’s space weather centre has been monitoring another coronal mass ejection from the sun, which looks like it could be heading our way.
If it behaves as expected, it could send another batch of charged particles into earth’s upper atmosphere on Wednesday night, with the possibility of another northern lights display that could equal Monday night’s.
The best way to try and see the northern lights is to go outside at least half an hour after sunset, away from artificial lights and look north!
If you manage to capture any pictures on Wednesday night, I’d love to see them. You can send them to me on Twitter – @liamdutton