Northern lights could be visible across Scotland tonight

People in Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland might have the best chance at seeing the colourful display.

The Met Office has said the northern lights will be visible at night from July 6 to July 8, if the sky is clear.

There's a chance of the Northern Lights occuring over the UK tonight. A coronal mass ejection could spread the Northern Lights over Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland.

However, with cloud and rain in the forecast and a short night time, visibility may be limited. pic.twitter.com/S9BFUBDx92

— Met Office Space (@MetOfficeSpace) July 6, 2023

Where will the northern lights be visible?

A Met Office spokesman said: “The northern lights may be enhanced overnight tonight with the arrival of a coronal mass ejection.

“They’re most likely to reach Scotland, parts of northern England and Northern Ireland.

“However, visibility may be poor for many, with cloud and rain for many in those regions overnight, as well as only a short window where it’s dark enough as we’re in summer.”

What causes the northern lights to appear in the sky?

The aurora is caused by charged particles from the sun colliding with molecules in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

A phenomenon known as coronal mass ejection causes the charged particles.

Coronal mass ejection is the sudden release of plasma from the sun’s corona, the outermost part of its atmosphere.

The Met Office has said the northern lights will be visible at night from July 6 to July 8, if the sky is clear (Image: Owen Humphreys/PA)

Don Pollacco, a professor at the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics, said that the northern lights – also known as the aurora borealis – are caused by the interaction of particles coming from the sun with the Earth’s atmosphere which are channelled to the polar regions by the planet’s magnetic field.

Depending on which gas molecules are hit and where they are in the atmosphere, different amounts of energy are released as different wavelengths of light.

For example, he said, oxygen produces green light while nitrogen causes the sky to glow red.

Prof Pollacco added: “These shapes change quickly over timescales of minutes or even seconds.

“To predict exactly where you can see the northern lights is difficult as conditions can change quickly.

“The current storm is said to be visible from northern England but they are notoriously difficult to predict.

“However, one thing is for sure, and that is that you are unlikely to see them from a brightly lit city environment – you need to go somewhere dark and look towards the northern horizon.

“So, you would preferably be in the countryside away from street lights.”