Northern Lights shimmer over UK in stunning photos

The Northern Lights have again splashed color across UK night skies, with stunning images shot all over the country.
The lights, known as the aurora borealis, were expected to be seen only as far south as the Midlands but on Wednesday night, according to BBC Weather was the strongest and most widespread showing of the phenomenon in the UK since May.
It could be just chance that people in some Northern areas may spot the lights on Friday, but it is not high on the agenda everywhere.
Readers and viewers of BBC Weather Watchers’ sent nearly 5000 photographs of the lights — here are some of the best along with some agency pictures and snaps shared with the BBC on social media.
The Northern Lights have been seen right across the UK and into continental Europe after an extremely geomagnetic storm — G5 — which is the most powerful on the scale.
“For much of the time it was bright enough that the lights could be seen well outside as far afield as Devon.”
Many people had the chance to see the aurora for much of the night, from about 19:00 BST last night. It then weakened a little during the early hours of today but came back stronger again after midnight, with its intensity remaining even until the dawn on Friday.
Metereologists recommend that a long exposure camera be used in photographing the auroras, since the phenomenon will not appear with a naked eye so many times.
Other than that, though, most people claimed they could see some of the colours bare-eyed further south.
A spectacle that was once an eye-opener and a lifelong experience for most people in the UK or a ‘must-see place’ when traveling to the Arctic circle is now more frequently observed in the past two years.
Aurorae are formed when charged particles smash into gases in the Earth’s atmosphere near the magnetic poles.
Light is emitted at a variety of wavelengths during a collision.
Most of these are seen above high polar latitudes and are mainly driven by geomagnetic storms originating from activity on the Sun.
More Northern Lights spotted in UK than in many years.
Boosted by the Sun reaching a “maximum” in its 11-year solar cycle, this has helped to increase the number of sightings in the UK.
During this maximum, the number of sunspots increases which leads to more Coronal Mass Ejections sending charged particles to Earth to create the aurora.
With overall high activity on the Sun with lots of sunspots, we’d better expect more of these Coronal Mass Ejections be directed at Earth during the coming months.
However, experts say that even as the Northern Lights could still be viewed from the UK after the Sun reached its peak, stargazers should expect a “gradual decline” in visibility.
Auroras have been particularly visible in 2024, considering it the largest geomagnetic storm since 2003 according to Sean Elvidge, space environment professor at the University of Birmingham.
According to Met Office weather forecaster Craig Snell, a solar storm has caused a powerful flare from the sun on Wednesday, which only arrived in our atmosphere today late on Thursday evening.
He said: “The strength of lights will ebb and flow throughout the evening but the lights may be captured at different times during the night