NORTHERN LIGHTS COULD BE VISIBLE OVER ALL OF BRITAIN TONIGHT

• The Northern Lights could be visible over the entirety of the UK tonight
• This has been triggered by the first 'severe' solar storm in 20 years hitting Earth
• READ MORE: World told to brace for 'severe geomagnetic storm' today 

All of Britain could get a spectacular glimpse of the Northern Lights tonight thanks to a massive solar storm which threatens to cause chaos around the world.

Scientists fear the 'severe' geomagnetic storm – the first to strike Earth in almost 20 years – has the power to disrupt power grids, mobile networks and GPS satellites.

The unusual event will also drape a huge portion of the country in a spectacular light display (an 'aurora').

Stargazers as far south as Cornwall could be in for a glimpse, the Met Office said. 

After a series of solar flares on Wednesday, multiple eruptions of solar radiation have now combined into a single wave due to hit Earth tonight. 

The brilliant colours of the aurora are caused by electrically charged particles from the sun colliding with the Earth's magnetic field. 

Usually, the sun only ejects enough plasma to trigger lights around the poles where the magnetic fields are at their strongest.

But during events called 'coronal mass ejections' the sun releases huge waves of plasma from its corona - the sun's outermost layer.

On Thursday, NOAA issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for the first time since January 2005. 

Throughout Wednesday and Thursday, a sunspot 16 times the diameter of Earth released multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the planet's direction. 

However, one strong flare released on Thursday has proven to be particularly fast and is now expected to 'sweep up' all of the radiation into a single wave.

While this might sound ominous, this is actually great news for stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Met Office says: 'Where skies are clear and provided dark enough skies, sightings are expected to develop following the CME arrival across the northern half of the UK.' 

They add that there is 'a chance that aurora may become visible to all parts of the UK and similar geomagnetic latitudes'.

Increased auroral activity should persist over the weekend into Sunday night and potentially into next week due to a chance of more CMEs arriving in the coming days. 

Met Office Space Weather Manager Krista Hammond told MailOnline: 'While short nights at this time of year will limit the visibility window, if conditions are right there's a good chance of sightings on Friday night. 

'Aurora visibility may persist through Saturday night, but as it stands this is likely to be less widespread than on Friday night with northern parts of the UK most likely to continue to have the best viewing potential.'

Weather conditions tonight should also give plenty of places a decent chance of seeing the aurora.  

By this evening, most of the UK should avoid any rain with clear skies over Scotland and much of the north and west of England. 

Mathew Owens, professor of space physics at the University of Reading, said it's worth looking north in the night's sky at around 2am UK time tonight (early Saturday morning). 

'If you're late to bed or up before sunrise, it's worth looking north as you may see the Northern Lights,' he said. 

'A strong aurora is probable for Scotland and northern England (and the weather looks to be cooperating for optimal viewing). 

'It may stretch further south, but until we have those magnetic field measurements when the CMEs arrive, it's hard to say.' 

However, experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US also warn that these beautiful displays could come alongside significant disruption. 

NOAA says: 'Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations.' 

As clouds of particles from the sun smash into gases in the atmosphere their collision creates electricity.

That electric field soaks up the radio waves we use to communicate, meaning that signals to satellites and other services can't get through – creating radio blackouts. 

The Met Office has issued an R3 Xray Radio Blackout Alert, indicating that strong radio blackouts are likely as the storm arrives. 

That electricity can also flow into the electrical grid, causing damage and power outages.

NOAA points out that the last G5 (Extreme) solar storm in 2003 caused power outages after Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa.

Geomagnetic storms can also cause the atmosphere to expand until it swallows up satellites in low-Earth orbit.

Just like running into a headwind, that air resistance slows down the satellite and makes it harder for them to stay in orbit.  

In some cases, this could potentially lead to the disruption of the satellites which are essential for communications and GPS navigation. 

However, it is not certain how disruptive today's storm will be but it is unlikely to be the last major solar event of the year.

The sun has a cycle of activity which reaches its peak every 11 years in an event called the solar maximum.

During this so-called maximum, the sun has a much greater number of sunspots, which are the origins of the biggest coronal mass ejections. 

A study published last year found that this maximum is coming sooner than some scientists had anticipated, meaning that space weather is likely to be volatile for some time to come. 

In March this led to a G2 solar storm triggering aurora over Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Lead author Dr Dibyendu Nandi, a physicist from the IISER Kolkata Center of Excellence in Space Sciences, told MailOnline at the time: The most intense storms can sometimes result in catastrophic orbital decay of low Earth orbiting satellites and disrupt satellite based services.

'They can also induce strong disturbances in the geomagnetic field tripping electric power grids located in high latitude regions.'

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2024-05-10T10:19:24Z dg43tfdfdgfd