Aurora Borealis captured by UK photographers

A series of powerful solar flares, which began erupting from the Sun on 19 January, amplified the Northern Lights between 21 to 23 January, making them clearly visible in areas of Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. The coronal ejections were caused by solar storms in Region 1401 of the Sun, and if they continue, could create similar scenes in the northern regions of the UK and western Europe over the coming nights.

The lights are created when by solar winds, charged with particles from the sun, meet Earth's atmosphere and react with the its magnetic field. The aurorae tend to be visible towards the extreme north and south of the planet as the solar plasma pulses are magnetically drawn towards the poles. Coronal ejections from the Sun in the direction of Earth ramp up the amount of plasma heading to the planet, creating geomagnetic storms which create brighter aurorae visible (in this case) further south then usual.(Source)

Mr Reed, who captured the dancing lights on his Canon 5D at 10.30pm on Sunday night, said the display was "unreal."

He said: "It is very difficult to predict when the lights are going to be visible. We saw the lights in the far distance, whereas in Norway or Iceland they would be above your head.

"People were dancing around under the lights – they were unreal. The lights were visible from about 6pm, but they peaked at around 10.30pm before they died out at midnight."

A powerful flare erupted from the sun last Thursday, unleashing a plasma wave that supercharged the Northern Lights into high latitudes.

Auroras occur when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, releasing visible light in the process.

The particles are funnelled toward Earth's polar regions by the planet's magnetic field. The glow is caused by high-energy electrons colliding with oxygen atoms and nitrogen molecules.

The potent solar flare unleashed the biggest radiation storm since 2005 and could disrupt some satellite communications in the polar regions, US space weather monitors said. (Source)

This January 19, 2012 image provided by NASA shows an M3.2 solar flare captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). An earth-directed coronal mass ejection was associated with the solar flare. NASA's Space Weather Services estimated that it traveled at over 630 miles per second and reached the Earth on January 21, when strong geomagnetic storms and aurora were observed.





Aurora borealis pictured over Norway by Daily Telegraph photographer Clara Molden