Will the Northern Lights be visible tonight?

If you missed the Northern Lights spectacle on Friday, there is more to come tonight.

The rare phenomenon lit up the sky across the UK after a huge solar storm hit the Earth yesterday.

Stargazers in the UK were treated with rare glimpses of Aurora Borealis, many for the first time, especially in the south of the country.

Bands of pink and green lights were visible Scotland, Wales and even in southern England after the ‘extreme’ geomagnetic storm.

Social media was flooded with stunning images after many decided to stay up to witness it.

Now forecasting experts have revealed whether there will be another display in case you opted for sleep over the aurora.

Are the Northern Lights out tonight?

The aurora borealis might be visible in northern parts of the UK again on Saturday, May 11.

Chris Snell, meteorologist at the Met Office, said there is a good chance for another active night.

He said: ‘It is hard to fully predict what will happen in the Earth’s atmosphere, but there will still be enhanced solar activity tonight, so the lights could be visible again in northern parts of the UK, including Scotland, Northern Ireland and the far north of England.’

Polar lights were spotted in parts of Europe as far south as Barcelona in Spain.

But the phenomena that creates the beautiful display is a result of a solar storm that could disrupt electronic devices like GPS and even power grids.

The geomagnetic storm that supercharged the aurora was caused by a ‘large, complex’ sunspot cluster, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.

Rated G5, it is considered extreme and the strongest level of solar storm.

Previous G5 storm hit Earth more than 20 years ago in October 2003, causing power outages in Sweden, according to Professor Carole Haswell speaking to BBC Radio 4 today.

What time are the Northern Lights visible tonight?

Winter is usually the best time to see aurora borealis with less daytime light.

But Saturday evening is your best chance to see the colourful sky again, although light pollution could be a problem in cities.

Snell said: ‘Also, at this time of year, we are fighting the shorter length of nights, so it is unlikely that they will be visible until around 10.30pm or 11 o’clock when it gets really dark.’

Best places to see the northern lights tonight

If you are keen to make the most of the aurora, some places are better suited for stargazing than others.

The meteorologist told those wanting to see the lights to head to an area with low light pollution and to use a good camera.

He added: ‘The best chance you have of seeing the lights is if you are away from street lights and areas with lots of light pollution, as any type of light does have a big effect.’

Sightings in southern parts of the UK are less likely on Saturday, although Snell said the lights might be visible through a strong camera lens.

Extreme solar storm

Prof Haswell, head of astronomy at the Open University, explained how the solar storm can disrupt vital satellite communications.

She said: ‘A lot of the satellites communicate using radio signals and all of these charged particles speeding around disrupt radio signals, particularly GPS which is used by planes can be disrupted so it can cause navigation problems, it can cause outages with satellites, it can bring down power systems.

‘The last big G5 storm caused a power outage in Sweden and I haven’t heard of anything happening this time yet, so hopefully people have designed in sort of redundancies into their systems so that they can actually weather this sort of space weather.’

A spokesperson for the Energy Networks Association in the UK said it is monitoring the solar storm, saying that the UK’s electricity network was operating as normal on Saturday morning.

Prof Haswell revealed the science behind the different colours of the Northern Lights.

‘Green comes from oxygen which is about 80 to 250 miles above the earth’s surface,’ she said.

‘The purple, blue and pink comes from nitrogen and when you get a very strong aurora sometimes you see a sort of scarlet red, and that comes from oxygen which is higher in the earth’s atmosphere, at an altitude of about 180 miles.’

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