大象传媒

Spectacular autumn aurora

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Silhouette of a person on a hill with camera equipment looking up into the night sky where there are the green and red hues of the aurora.Image source, 大象传媒 WEATHER WATCHERS / JONNY GIOS
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Aurora watcher in Cumbria with camera pointing into the night sky filled with the northern lights

As our night sky becomes darker after the lighter summer months, the aurora has started to put on a show.

While the aurora or northern lights can happen all year round, we need dark skies to be able to see it. As we move further into autumn, daylight is decreasing at a rapid rate of four or five minutes each day.

The aurora also tends to be more visible around the equinox as this is the time earth is neither pointed towards or away from the sun in its orientation.

Following a geomagnetic storm on the Sun sending charged particles towards our atmosphere, sightings of the aurora are likely to become more regular as we approach the peak in solar activity in 2025.

With a moderate geomagnetic storm on the sun, charged particles enter our atmosphere and interact with oxygen and nitrogen. This releases the red and purple colours of the aurora.

Aurora watchers are alerted to these solar storms and are often ready with their cameras to capture this spectacular phenomenon.

Image source, 大象传媒 WEATHER WATCHERS / JONNY GIOS
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Aurora watcher in Cumbria with camera pointing into the night sky filled with the northern lights

Image source, 大象传媒 WEATHER WATCHERS / SOUND-OF-ISLAY
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The first vivid aurora of the autumn in Argyll and Bute

大象传媒 Weather Watchers sent in pictures from Aberdeenshire, Cumbria, Lancashire and even as far south as Cornwall.

Image source, 大象传媒 WEATHER WATCHERS / KERNOW_NICK
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Aurora spotted as far south as Penzance in Cornwall

The sun has an 11-year cycle in activity where the number of sunspots changes. It transitions from a minimum where there are few sunspots to a maximum where there are lots of sunspots.

It's these sunspots that erupt and produce coronal mass ejections (CME's) sending a solar wind with charged particles into space. We've seen the number of sunspots increase as we move closer to the next solar maximum in 2025 so there is a greater chance that a sunspot and CME travels towards Earth.

Image source, 大象传媒 WEATHER WATCHERS / THE GRAHAMSLAWS
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Northern lights in Banchory, Aberdeenshire

Image source, 大象传媒 WEATHER WATCHERS / TICKETYBOO_SUS
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Spectacular display of the aurora in Aberdeenshire