Another Northern Lights show coming after explosion on surface of Sun

The UK could be set for another display of Northern Lights after the Sun blasted a huge X-class flare this week. A sunspot region unleashed an X-class solar flare on Thursday, the most powerful solar ejection.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. NASA explain: "Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS & communications signals travel."

It comes after The Northern Lights lit up the skies with hues of green and pink across the north of England on Thursday. Photos of the lights, also known as aurora borealis, were captured over Cullercoats Bay in north Tyneside, on the north-east coast of England.

The Northern Lights on display in the skies over Cullercoats Bay in North Tyneside, on the North East coast of England, on Thursday evening
The Northern Lights on display in the skies over Cullercoats Bay in North Tyneside, on the North East coast of England, on Thursday evening -Credit:PA

Bright green hues and faint colours of pink lit up the skies above Cullercoats Bay, which had ideal viewing conditions. The natural phenomenon was also visible across parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Jonathan Vautrey, Met Office meteorologist, said Thursday night had “pretty ideal conditions” with “very little cloud”. Aurora displays occur when charged particles collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere around the magnetic poles.

As they collide, light is emitted at various wavelengths, creating colourful displays in the sky. In the northern hemisphere, most of this activity takes place within a band known as the aurora oval, covering latitudes between 60 and 75 degrees.

When activity is strong, this expands to cover a greater area – which explains why displays can be occasionally seen as far south as the UK. On Thursday, the Met Office said there would be another chance to see the lights on Friday night into Saturday, but Mr Vautrey added it looked as if it would be weaker.

Strong solar flares like this can cause coronal mass ejections (CME); explosions of plasma and magnetic field that can cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth. These storms can trigger spectacular displays of aurora as the Earth's magnetosphere is disturbed by the solar wind.

However, while the storms create beautiful aurora, they also can disrupt navigation systems, radio communications and affect the power grid. The Sun's activity was observed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft. Its mission is to study the Sun’s dynamics to "increase understanding of the nature and sources of solar variability".

SDO documents the outer atmosphere of the Sun - called the corona - as well as hot flare plasma. The Met Office said: "Another CME arrival overnight Friday into Saturday brings a chance of further visible aurora to northern areas of the UK, primarily Scotland."