Northern Lights might be seen for elements of the UK till Saturday

Skygazers throughout the UK have an opportunity to witness the Northern Lights till Saturday.

The Met Office forecast suggests the phenomenon, also referred to as the Aurora Borealis, might be seen to the bare eye alongside the northern horizon from Scotland, the place skies are clear.

The Northern Lights might also illuminate the sky in Northern Ireland and northern England.

A minor enhancement to the aurora oval – which determines the vary of polar lights – means the dazzling show is seen additional south.

It is often related to Scandinavian nations in Europe, however can typically be seen within the UK.

People reported sightings across the nation on Wednesday – from as far south as Cornwall, in addition to in Greater Manchester, Northumberland and the Lake District.

Lancaster University’s AuroraWatch, run by the Space and Planetary Physics group, issued a “red alert” on Wednesday, that means “it is likely that aurora will be visible by eye and camera from anywhere in the UK”.

The exercise is predicted to begin subsiding from Saturday.

How are you able to see the phenomenon?

Professor Don Pollacco, of the University of Warwick’s division of physics, mentioned it could be tough to foretell precisely the place the Northern Lights might be seen, as a result of circumstances change quickly.

“However, one thing is for sure, and that is that you are unlikely to see them from a brightly lit city environment – you need to go somewhere dark and look towards the northern horizon [look for the North Star].

“So, you’ll ideally be within the countryside away from avenue lights. Of course, it additionally must clear.”

Explaining what the lights are, Professor Pollacco added: “The Northern Lights [Aurora Borealis] are brought on by the interplay of particles coming from the solar, the photo voltaic wind, with the Earth’s environment – channelled to the polar areas by the Earth’s magnetic subject.

“It’s actually a bit like iron filings and the field of a bar magnetic.

“The photo voltaic wind comprises extra particles when there are solar spots, as these are areas on the solar’s floor the place the magnetic subject is interacting with the plasma within the solar, and the particles may be launched.

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“Once the particles are channelled into the Earth’s atmosphere they interact with molecules and have distinctive colours and patterns such as light emissions that look like curtains or spotlights.

“These shapes over change rapidly over timescales of minutes/seconds.”

According to the Royal Observatory Greenwich, different gases determine what colours light up the sky, with nitrogen and oxygen being the primary gases in Earth’s atmosphere.

Green in the aurora is a characteristic of oxygen, while purple, blue or pink hues are caused by nitrogen.

A deep red can sometimes be seen when the aurora is “notably energetic”, because of very excessive altitude oxygen interacting with photo voltaic particles.