12 Sep 2014

Northern lights may be visible tonight

Northern parts of the UK could be in for a showing of the aurora borealis, or northern lights as they are also known, on Friday night.

The possibility of seeing this spectacular natural show is due to two coronal mass ejections (CME) that have been thrown outwards from the sun in our direction.

Coronal mass ejections are huge bubbles of gas that are released by the sun over the course of several hours, often associated with solar flares. 

northernlights_uk_g_wp

They can contain billions of tons of material travelling at speeds of up to 4.5 million mph, which means that if directed toward earth, can take three days to arrive.

As the magnetically charged particles within the coronal mass ejection interact with earth’s magnetic field, they cause an increase geomagnetic activity.

This increase in activity releases energy into earth’s atmosphere, in the form of various colours of visible light, leading to the aurora borealis.

Strong geomagnetic storm watch

CME_sun_g_wpThe US National Weather Service’s Space Prediction Center monitors the sun’s activity and produces forecasts of how strong geomagnetic storms are likely to be.

The first of the two CMEs predicted to reach earth arrived in the early hours of Friday, with moderate (G2) geomagnetic activity expected.

A second CME is expected to arrive later on Friday, leading to a strong (G3) geomagnetic storm watch being issued for 13 September.

What does this mean for the UK?

With a watch in place for a strong geomagnetic storm, this means that there is a possibility that the northern lights will be visible in northern parts of the UK.

The greatest chance of them being seen is across the northern half of Scotland, although there is a chance that Northern Ireland and northern parts of England could see them too.

Tonight, it may be a little harder to spot them than usual, due to there being variable amounts of cloud across northern parts of the UK, as well as some mist and fog.

Nevertheless, away from the light polluted towns and cities, if you look north in the sky from around midnight onwards, you may get lucky!

If you do manage to spot the northern lights and take and pictures, you can tweet them to me on Twitter – @liamdutton

Tweets by @liamdutton