The aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, glows on the horizon at St Mary's Lighthouse in the UK's Whitley Bay. PA
The aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, glows on the horizon at St Mary's Lighthouse in the UK's Whitley Bay. PA
The aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, glows on the horizon at St Mary's Lighthouse in the UK's Whitley Bay. PA
The aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, glows on the horizon at St Mary's Lighthouse in the UK's Whitley Bay. PA

Northern Lights seen as far south as England


Simon Rushton
  • English
  • Arabic

The aurora borealis, usually restricted to Artic locations, slipped south into the skies over Britain on Thursday.

The Northern Lights were seen as far south as northern England and Wales.

The natural phenomenon is most commonly seen near the Arctic Circle, with Finland and Alaska prime viewing locations.

The lights occur due to disturbances in Earth's magnetosphere, when electrically charged particles from the Sun enter the atmosphere. They are usually concentrated around the magnetic poles.

While the aurora borealis occurs in the Northern Hemisphere, the aurora australis can be seen in the Southern Hemisphere.

The UK's Met Office said the display over England was due to a coronal mass ejection — an immense expulsion of plasma from the Sun's corona.

  • Finland played host to an amazing display of the Northern Lights appearing above the Arctic Circle, near Rovaniemi. AFP
    Finland played host to an amazing display of the Northern Lights appearing above the Arctic Circle, near Rovaniemi. AFP
  • The aurora borealis appeared then continued all the way through the night. AFP
    The aurora borealis appeared then continued all the way through the night. AFP
  • The view near Rovaniemi. AFP
    The view near Rovaniemi. AFP
  • Vivid colours on display above Rovaniemi. AFP
    Vivid colours on display above Rovaniemi. AFP
  • Parts of England were also treated to a view of the aurora borealis, illuminating St Mary's Lighthouse in Whitley Bay on the north-east coast. PA
    Parts of England were also treated to a view of the aurora borealis, illuminating St Mary's Lighthouse in Whitley Bay on the north-east coast. PA

While people in the UK rushed outside to see the lights, some Swedish residents were only able to see an imitation due to an experiment on space weather.

Researchers at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics launched a rocket from the Esrange Space Centre in the country's far north to release firework-like materials into the sky at an altitude of between 100km to 200km.

Waves of greenish-white lights could be seen across the dark sky right after 1830 GMT above the northern Swedish town of Kiruna and within a 200km radius.

But they were somewhat less spectacular than the real Northern Lights and the experiment ended up blocking out the real aurora borealis.

The experiment was part of research aimed at helping scientists improve near-space weather forecasts to protect satellites and critical infrastructure.

“People nowadays cannot imagine life without GPS, without TV, without satellite TV, without mobile phones and so on,” said Tima Sergienko, lead scientist of the experiment.

“And to have all of this, we need to understand space weather.

“In some cases when we have strong ionic activity, all this stuff can be destroyed due to space weather.”

T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

Qualifier A, Muscat

(All matches to be streamed live on icc.tv) 

Fixtures

Friday, February 18: 10am Oman v Nepal, Canada v Philippines; 2pm Ireland v UAE, Germany v Bahrain 

Saturday, February 19: 10am Oman v Canada, Nepal v Philippines; 2pm UAE v Germany, Ireland v Bahrain 

Monday, February 21: 10am Ireland v Germany, UAE v Bahrain; 2pm Nepal v Canada, Oman v Philippines 

Tuesday, February 22: 2pm Semi-finals 

Thursday, February 24: 2pm Final 

UAE squad:Ahmed Raza(captain), Muhammad Waseem, Chirag Suri, Vriitya Aravind, Rohan Mustafa, Kashif Daud, Zahoor Khan, Alishan Sharafu, Raja Akifullah, Karthik Meiyappan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Zafar Farid, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Rahul Bhatia

Libya's Gold

UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves. 

The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.

Final scores

18 under: Tyrrell Hatton (ENG)

- 14: Jason Scrivener (AUS)

-13: Rory McIlroy (NIR)

-12: Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP)

-11: David Lipsky (USA), Marc Warren (SCO)

-10: Tommy Fleetwood (ENG), Chris Paisley (ENG), Matt Wallace (ENG), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR)

Medicus AI

Started: 2016

Founder(s): Dr Baher Al Hakim, Dr Nadine Nehme and Makram Saleh

Based: Vienna, Austria; started in Dubai

Sector: Health Tech

Staff: 119

Funding: €7.7 million (Dh31m)

 

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Updated: March 24, 2023, 6:00 PM