THE NORTHERN Lights may yet be visible in parts of Britain this week, according to the Met Office.
The Aurora Borealis dazzled the nation over the weekend, with a stunning display of colourful lights being spotted as far south as Essex, Cambridgeshire and Berkshire on Friday.
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They were also seen in Suffolk, Kent, Hampshire and Liverpool.
Sightings reached as far as Ireland, with the Irish weather service
Met Eireann posting images of the lights in Dublin and at Shannon Airport in Co Clare.
And while nothing quite as dazzling as last week is forecast at the moment, Britons in northern parts of the country may yet be able to catch another glimpse of the phenomenon.
The Met Office space weather department says there remains “a slight chance” of glancing Coronal Mass Ejection impacts overnight on 17 May into 18 May in the Northern Hemisphere.
Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are large expulsions of plasma from the sun.
“These may bring some limited enhancement to the aurora, with the slight potential of allowing for some visibility as far south as northern Scotland or similar latitudes,” forecasters said.
It comes amid an alert from AuroraWatch UK, which is run by scientists in the Space and Planetary Physics group at Lancaster University’s Department of Physics.
The site produces an hourly index to measure geomagnetic activity.
This is used to estimate the likelihood that aurora can be seen in Britain.
Its status between 6am and 7am today was “Amber alert: possible aurora” – meaning the phenomenon was “likely” to be visible by eye from Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland.
An “Amber” status also means the Northern Lights are “possibly visible from elsewhere in the UK”, with a likelihood of photographs from “anywhere” in the country.
But Prof Jim Wild, of Lancaster University, told The Sun this morning the alert was triggered by a “slight disturbance”.
He added: “But that is for now and obviously it’s not dark, so there is nothing to see.
“No guarantees for later today as it’s likely things will have quietened down by sunset.”
This morning’s “Amber” status was the highest the reading has been within a 24-hour period.
Only one status is higher – “Red”, which means a likelihood that the aurora would be visible “by eye and camera from anywhere in the UK”.
The lowest alert, “Green”, means aurora is unlikely to be visible by eye or camera from anywhere in Britain.
The next step up, “Yellow”, suggests “Minor geomagnetic activity” and means aurora may be visible by eye from Scotland and by camera from northern England and northern Ireland.
Much of the previous 24 hours have been the lowest level, “Green”, with a few instances of “Yellow” inbetween.
Met Office spokesman Oli Claydon previously told The Sun: “Geomagnetic activity on Friday night was very strong, reaching a strength which was last seen in the UK in 2003.
“This resulted in some very vivid Aurora sightings across the UK with clear skies for many.”
Fellow Met Office forecaster Chris Snell, previously said there were sightings “from top to tail across the country” on Friday.
What are the Northern Lights?
Aurora displays occur when charged particles collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere around the magnetic poles.
In the northern hemisphere, most of this activity takes place within a band known as the aurora oval, covering latitudes between 60 and 75 degrees.
When activity is strong, this expands to cover a greater area – which explains why displays can be occasionally seen as far south as the UK.
The visibility of the Northern Lights was increased on Friday because of an “extreme” geomagnetic storm, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The phenomena appears as beautiful dancing green and purple ribbons of light that have captivated people for millennia.
He added that there were sightings in parts of Europe on Friday night as well, with the Met Office receiving pictures and information from locations including Prague and Barcelona.
The visibility of the Northern Lights was increased because of an “extreme” geomagnetic storm, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The NOAA said the G5 geomagnetic storm, which is considered extreme and is the strongest level of geomagnetic storm, hit earth on Thursday.
The cause of this storm was a “large, complex” sunspot cluster and is 17 times the diameter of earth, with the last storm with a G5 rating hitting earth in October 2003, causing power outages in Sweden.
Photos also show the lights in France, Turkey, the Netherlands, Russia, Denmark, Ukraine and Slovakia.
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