Brits may get another chance to see a magnificent display of the Northern Lights, as there are indications of another solar storm heading our way. Over the weekend the night sky was ablaze with vibrant colours, delighting stargazers as far south as Berkshire, Cornwall and Kent.
Usually constrained to the extreme north of the northern hemisphere, the spectacle made a rare appearance thanks to interruption from solar storms, allowing millions to catch a glimpse of the twinkling spectacle – even amidst city lights. Speaking to The Mirror, Greg Brown, astronomer at Greenwich Observatory, shared his excitement, but also injected a note of caution, citing the inherent unpredictability of solar storm predictions.
“Predicting the next solar storm to any accuracy is all but impossible,” he said. However, there are signs of another storm approaching within the next few days, which might boost the aurorae again.
“Longer term we can use the Sun’s cycle of activity to predict general trends in solar storms. The Sun goes through a roughly 11-year cycle of changing activity. We are currently at solar maximum, when the Sun is at its most active and flares, sunspots and coronal mass ejections – the bursts that produce solar storms – are at their most common. While we remain at the Sun’s peak, the chance of a solar storm remains quite high, though G5 class storms, the type that produced Friday’s burst of aurorae, are very rare even at solar maximum.”
Brown continued, adding the Sun will be “well on its way to being quiet again” and that the chance of extreme auroral events such as those Brits experienced over the weekend “will go down considerably” until the next cycle in about a decade. The last time Brits had a similar view of the night sky was about 20 years ago in October 2003, during the last G5 extreme-rated solar storm.
The Northern Lights become visible to people when particles from the Sun impact the Earth’s magnetic field and are redirected toward the poles. When the particles hit the atmosphere, the energy they carried is briefly given to the gas particle they collide with before being turned into colours of light.
For those keen to learn more about where the Northern Lights are most likely to be visible in the UK, AuroraWatch UK is a great resource. Brown also noted that while the Northern Lights are relatively common in the northernmost parts of Scotland, they are extremely rare in southern parts of the country.
