We don’t usually see the skies with flickering greens, oranges and red hues in Bristol. But sightings of the Northern Lights have become more frequent in the UK as of late and they’re the strongest they’ve been for at least a decade. The last time we mentioned the aurora borealis they’d been spotted at Stonehenge!
Thanks to an intense Solar Storm, the whole of the UK may bear witness to the Northern Lights tonight (May 10). It’s the first time since January 2005 that the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center in America has issued a Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch. And with clear skies expected too, this will be your best chance to see the aurora borealis in Bristol.
What is the aurora borealis?
Auroras occur when charged particles in the solar wind collide with molecules in Earth’s atmosphere. It was Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei who named them ‘aurora borealis’ in 1619, but the earliest reference comes from a cave painting in France, which is 30,000 years old.
According to The Met Office: “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. Oxygen gives off green light when it is hit 60 miles above the Earth, whilst at 100-200 miles rare, all-red auroras are produced. Nitrogen causes the sky to glow blue yet when higher in the atmosphere the glow has a purple hue.”
How can I see the aurora borealis in Bristol?
We already know that Friday night will be the best night to see it, but you may be able to spot it too on Saturday evening. The strongest lights tend to be seen from 9pm to 2am, but we’d recommend keeping an eye on the skies between 11pm and midnight when the skies are darkest. We’d also recommend looking towards the northern horizon and getting out into dark, open spaces.