Northern lights: The best pictures of the aurora taken across the UK

Northern Lights, or northern lights, show flickers of green and red lights in the night sky, as seen in this photo taken on February 26 from a lookout overlooking the town of Fort William in western Scotland.

They are created when bursts of solar wind (streams of charged particles emitted from the sun’s outer layer) collide with the earth’s magnetic field. This field normally deflects most particles, but is weaker around the poles where particles can penetrate the upper atmosphere and collide with gas molecules. These molecules gain and lose energy in the form of light particles or photons, emitting tiny flashes of light that combine to fill the sky with swirling patterns of color.

Over the past few days, magnetic disturbances in the Sun’s upper atmosphere have released a large amount of charged particles. This is an event known as a coronal mass ejection. With particularly fast solar winds, the aurora reached places such as Anglesey in northern Wales and Dorset in southern England.

Tonight may be our last chance to see the Northern Lights caused by the recent coronal mass ejection far north of Scotland, perhaps near the coastal village of Hopeman, which was photographed wonderfully on February 26th. yeah. However, the aurora will not be visible as far south as in the next few days due to the weakening of the Sun’s activity.

If you missed the recent spectacle, the best place to look for the northern lights is Stockholm, Sweden, where these mesmerizing green northern lights were caught high above the city on February 27th. Other good places to see the Northern Lights include Iceland, southern Greenland, northern Finland, Norway, Canada and Alaska.