Timey
Jedi Master
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/aug/05/northern-lights-england
One of the rarest sights in the English night sky could be visible after sunset tonight, provided one of the most common – cloud cover – does not get in the way.
A series of solar eruptions have sent the northern lights further south than usual in the last five days, and clear skies after dark give an outside chance of catching the vivid neon glow as far south as Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Conscious of many previous disappointments involving the lights, or aurora borealis, whose usual home is much closer to the Arctic, astronomers are treating the possibility with caution. Hopes of a display last night, after spectacular sightings in Denmark, north Germany and the US on Tuesday, were dashed by cloud and less solar activity than expected.
Targeted by specialist holiday firms, which have no trouble filling £1,300 weekend packages to see the lights in Norway and Lapland, the green, blue and violet glows follow surges of gas from the sun which react as they enter the Earth's atmosphere. The latest began arriving at the weekend after travelling 93m miles from the sun, where five eruptions were recorded at the weekend within a 20-hour span.
The British Astronomical Association said that the European sightings on Tuesday gave grounds for optimism about England getting a rare look-in. The lights are much less of rarity in Scotland where sightings have been made this year but cloud is expected to hide, or greatly reduce, any show there tonight.
Northern regions of England, however, have spells of clear weather forecast before clouds return in the early hours. David Gavine of the BAA said: "The Danish sighting is significant because it was on the same geomagnetic latitude as the UK, which determines how far south the aurora is visible.
"So there's every chance, if the skies are clear that we might see something tonight."
Dr Lucie Green of the Mullard space laboratory at University College London said that sky-watchers south of the Scottish border had a chance of seeing the aurora. "In England it's a very special event," she said.
The lights are concentrated over the Arctic because of the Earth's magnetic field, which steers erupted solar particles towards the pole. En route they collide with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen, creating the strange and beautiful glow.
One of the rarest sights in the English night sky could be visible after sunset tonight, provided one of the most common – cloud cover – does not get in the way.
A series of solar eruptions have sent the northern lights further south than usual in the last five days, and clear skies after dark give an outside chance of catching the vivid neon glow as far south as Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Conscious of many previous disappointments involving the lights, or aurora borealis, whose usual home is much closer to the Arctic, astronomers are treating the possibility with caution. Hopes of a display last night, after spectacular sightings in Denmark, north Germany and the US on Tuesday, were dashed by cloud and less solar activity than expected.
Targeted by specialist holiday firms, which have no trouble filling £1,300 weekend packages to see the lights in Norway and Lapland, the green, blue and violet glows follow surges of gas from the sun which react as they enter the Earth's atmosphere. The latest began arriving at the weekend after travelling 93m miles from the sun, where five eruptions were recorded at the weekend within a 20-hour span.
The British Astronomical Association said that the European sightings on Tuesday gave grounds for optimism about England getting a rare look-in. The lights are much less of rarity in Scotland where sightings have been made this year but cloud is expected to hide, or greatly reduce, any show there tonight.
Northern regions of England, however, have spells of clear weather forecast before clouds return in the early hours. David Gavine of the BAA said: "The Danish sighting is significant because it was on the same geomagnetic latitude as the UK, which determines how far south the aurora is visible.
"So there's every chance, if the skies are clear that we might see something tonight."
Dr Lucie Green of the Mullard space laboratory at University College London said that sky-watchers south of the Scottish border had a chance of seeing the aurora. "In England it's a very special event," she said.
The lights are concentrated over the Arctic because of the Earth's magnetic field, which steers erupted solar particles towards the pole. En route they collide with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen, creating the strange and beautiful glow.
