Northern Lights set to shine across UK on New Year's Eve – where best to spot them
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The Northern Lights are set to make an appearance this New Year's Eve - giving some Brits the chance of bringing the New Year in with a magical aerial display. People in Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England may be able to catch a glimpse of the awesome spectacle, according to the UK's Met Office.
However, whether you're able to see them or not will largely depend on tonight's weather, which has threatened to scupper countless New Year's events across the UK. If the skies stay cloud-free, you may be in luck as these are the best conditions to take in the display - which is caused by solar flares colliding with the earth's magnetic field.
According to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Northern Lights are more visible the further north you are, but due to heightened solar activity in recent months, they have been seen as far south as Cornwall. Though solar storms can knock out satellites, the Met Office says it's unlikely that tonight's activity will lead to communication issues. There has been a surge in the number of solar storms, as the Sun goes through a period of heightened activity which is expected to last through next year, reports The Express. Solar storms mean huge clouds of electrically charged particles are thrown out from our nearest star.
Royal Observatory astronomer Tom Kerss told The Express: “These particles then slam into atoms and molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere and essentially heat them up. We call this physical process ‘excitation’, but it’s very much like heating a gas and making it glow.
