Further Reading

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Northern lights could be visible from UK as Sun's 'solar tsunami' sweeps towards Earth

Daily Mail says: 'The Sun is about to put on a spectacular light show. Two minor solar storms that flared on Sunday are shooting tons of plasma directly at Earth. Scientists said residents in the UK might even get a chance to see unusual northern lights as the coronal mass disturbs the the Earth's atmosphere. Usually only regions closer to the Arctic can see the aurora of rippling reds and greens, but solar storms pull them south. Early on Sunday morning, the Sun's surface erupted and blasted tons of plasma - ionised atoms - into interplanetary space. That plasma is headed our way, and when it arrives, it could create a spectacular light show. 'This eruption is directed right at us, and is expected to get here early in the day on August 4th,' said astronomer Leon Golub of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). 'It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time.