Aurora enthusiasts are in for another display across skies in northern Scotland as solar winds race towards Earth at around 800 km per second.
Last month, stargazers in the UK were treated to spectacular views after the northern lights were visible as far south as Kent and Cornwall.
Most recently, a ‘hole’ in the sun or ‘sunspot’, 30 times the size of the Earth has led to 1,800,000 mph solar winds, causing the appearance of these Northern Lights.
The Met Office has said the Northern Lights would be visible again on Friday night, clear skies permitting.
‘Due to current solar wind enhancements there is a chance of periods of Minor Storm conditions. This could give aurora sightings for northern Scotland and similar geomagnetic latitudes until early on 1st April – where skies are clear,’ said an update from the Met Office.
‘Minor solar storms are possible on Thursday and Friday night, which means aurora sightings would be possible in northern Scotland under clear skies,’ said Krista Hammond, of the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre.
‘As this is a fairly minor solar storm, the auroras aren’t expected to be visible much further south on this occasion.’
The hole in the Sun, known as a coronal hole isn’t a literal hole, rather it’s a large area that’s much cooler than the rest of the Sun, causing it to appear black.
These are places where the Sun’s magnetic field lines don’t close back on themselves, but instead stick straight out into space. This leaves an open channel for solar wind to blast through.
A solar flare is an intense burst of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with these sunspots.
This one is the size of about 18 to 20 Earths across and was spotted by Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
‘This is expected to be a G1 solar storm, which is the lowest category for these events and the most frequent events we see,’ said Hammond.
Christopher Owen, professor of physics and head of Space Plasma Group at UCL, said that a UK-built spacecraft – the Solar Orbiter – detected the fast solar wind using its onboard wind detector.
‘In the measurements, we see an increase in the solar wind speed from about 400km per second yesterday around midnight to over 700km per second this morning,’ said Owen on Wednesday.
If you’re hearing a lot about solar flares recently, it’s because the Sun is at its most active. This happens about every 11 years when coronal holes are more likely to appear.
Since December 2019, solar activity, including the number of sunspots and solar flares, has increased.
The Sun is heading to a solar maximum, in 2024, when the star’s polarity will reverse and many more active regions will appear.
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