The Northern Lights cast an ethereal curtain over Whitley Bay on the North East coast of England earlier today (Picture: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)
The Northern Lights will transform the typically gloomy skies above the UK with streaks of pink, purple and green this week.
The night sky phenomenon, or aurora borealis, are flashes of colour that mainly appear in the northernmost regions of the planet, like Canada.
But a geomagnetic storm that has raged for months has made this celestial fireworks display visible further south – even in London.
The Met Office says that the Northern Lights will be visible in the UK this week – and for a good while.
Here’s everything you need to know.
What are the Northern Lights?
Wrapped around the Earth is something called the magnetic field. Think of it like cling film wrapped around an apple that helps keep worms away.
Thankfully, we don’t need to worry about any space worms coming for us. Instead, the field shields us from the plasma the Sun spits out, called solar wind.
Some of those energy particles splatter over the Earth and cause a disturbance in our planet’s magnetic field, known as a geomagnetic storm.
If that storm is strong enough, the aurora borealis (no, not that actor from Bones or Buffy the Vampire Slayer) becomes visible
Will we see the Northern Lights today?
Places like Iceland regularly see the Northern Lights (Picture: Getty Images)
Probably! The Met Office says a burst of solar activity means the aurora will dance above northern Scotland.
On the weather agency’s ‘space weather’ forecast (yes, really), it says: ‘There is a chance of aurora sightings at times across northern Scotland this week, given clear night-time skies, with a slight chance of sightings across Southern Scotland and similar latitudes.’
There’s a good chance they’ll be visible elsewhere in the UK. In the early hours today, for example, Northern Lights chasers saw the neon spaghetti above Whitley Bay, a seaside town in North Tyneside.
Why the UK is seemingly getting its own light show every other week is because the sun’s magnetic field flips every 11 years, the peak of which is known as the solar maximum.
Forecasters say the Northern Lights will be visible this week (Picture: Met Office)
During this, sunspots, which show as dark areas in photographs of the sun, burst like a spot would on a teenager’s face. Scientists call these coronal mass ejections.
Jo Farrow, a forecaster for the independent meteorological service, Netweather, previously told Metro: ‘When a coronal mass ejection is “Earth-directed”, the sun being a sphere can throw coronal mass ejections out in any direction. There have been some very large flares recently.’
A big stream of this Sun gunk, called solar wind, will reach us today and last until Friday.
How can I photograph the Northern Lights?
Annika Bizon, head of Ireland at Samsung UK told Metro: ‘Witnessing the Northern Lights is a bucket list item for many, but it’s hard to capture the moment on camera.
‘People aren’t used to taking photographs when it’s pitch-black outside, and there’s a real skill to it.’
Bizon said many smartphones ‘do the thinking’ for stargazers with settings like night mode.
Whitley Bay also saw the neon lightshow last year (Picture: Getty Images Europe)
‘This setting enhances the details of the aurora borealis and brightens your shot, allowing you to capture its stunning colours, even in the dark of night,’ she added.
‘It’s worth playing around with your camera settings to see if your phone has a function to help you capture the best shots, even in low light settings.’
The Met Office added on X: ‘The best chance of viewing will be beneath clearer skies in the east, especially using long exposure photograph.’
How to track aurora activity in the UK
AuroraWatch UK, a Lancaster University service that monitors the phenomenon, recorded recent ‘significant activity’ at 2am last night.
It’s quietened since but similar services like VeryWeather show an ‘aurora storm’ is rumbling.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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