Northern Lights Sunday May 12: What does Aurora Borealis actually mean
The Northern Lights are expected to visible above the UK once more tonight after a series of dazzling natural light shows this weekend. The night of Friday, May 10 saw the most impressive Aurora Borealis displays as the Northern Lights were pictured in Kingston, Croydon and Bromley among other parts of the city. A sunspot cluster appears to have merged with each other to become one giant super sunspot 17 times the size of Earth which is firing out massive solar flares and plasma towards our planet. This has meant a G5 "extreme" solar storm was sent earthwards - the highest classification. When these come into contact with Earth the geomagnetic field interacts with them producing this beautiful ethereal display of colour in our skies. The last time a G5-rated storm hit Earth in October 2003, it caused power outages in Sweden. READ MORE: New Northern Lights alert for England on Sunday, May 12 - and how to get phone notifications As we look forward to another night of Nort...