Mother Nature’s light show dazzles Britain
TO see a display as spectacular a as this in the night sky, you would normally expect to have to o pay a lot of money to travel to the Arctic Circle.
But B unusual atmospheric conditions ti have resulted in rarely seen dazzling and colourful displays of the h Northern Lights across norther ern Britain this week.
Tuesday T night saw a particularly astonishing as show of the natural phenomenon, no with eerie green curtains of light visible in Scotland, northern England E and even South Wales.
The T Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, B were expected to be visible even ev farther south last night. Experts say sa the ideal conditions of dark and clear cl skies mean the displays may be repeated re for the next few evenings.
Aurora A are caused when the solar wind – a stream of charged particles fired ir across space by the sun – interac act with the Earth’s magnetic field.
A At the moment, the solar wind is pa particularly strong as a result of solar fla flares. Much of it is deflected by the Earth’s magnetic field but around the h north and south poles, where the fie field is strongest and nearer to the su surface, the charged particles enter th the atmosphere.
H Here they interact with oxygen, ni nitrogen and other gases, causing the sp spectacular light displays known as Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, in the northern hemisphere and Aurora Australis in the southern hemisphere.
The colours vary according to the gases involved. The most common colour, a pale yellowish-green, is produced by oxygen molecules releasing light Nitrogen energy produces as they blue are or purplish- ionised. red aurora, which appear like clouds, curtains and other shapes. Northern locations such as Scandinavia, Alaska, northern Canada and Iceland are best for viewing but the lights The stronger occasionally the solar occur wind, in Britain. the farther south they extend. The Met Office’s Grahame Madge said the best chance you have of seeing them is in the north – and you need clear, dark skies away from light pollution.