The distance to the aurora belt, compounded by light pollution or twilight, means it can be difficult for the naked eye to see the phenomenon clearly and it is often portrayed much brighter in pictures than it appears to the naked eye. The Northern Lights can produce a spectacular light show sometimes seen as far south as Scotland and Northern England/Ireland - if skies are clear. In other parts of the solar cycle these disturbances are largely the result of coronal mass ejections, which can give larger magnitude disturbances than these high speed streams. During this phase the position of coronal holes on the Sun's equator give rise to high speed solar wind streams that buffet the Earth, disturbing the Earth's magnetic field and increasing the likelihood of auroras. Solar maximum occurred in early 2014 so we are now in the declining phase of the solar cycle. The Sun goes through an 11 year solar cycle, from solar minimum, through solar maximum and back to solar minimum. These auroras can be faintly visible from the UK because they occur at high altitudes. During more moderate to strong geomagnetic storms (Kp6-7), the Aurora borealis often moves southwards across southern Iceland or towards the Faeroes. When and where are you most likely to see the Northern Lights?Īs the UK is south of where the natural aurora belt occurs (Norway/Iceland/Greenland), it takes a severe or extreme geomagnetic storm (Kp8-9+) to bring the belt southwards directly over the UK.
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