Stargazers could be in line for some stunning displays over the coming months after a major solar event was confirmed. The Met Office has announced that a “once-in-decade” event will be visible over the next year.
According to the weather experts NASA has confirmed the start of a ‘solar maximum’, which is expected to enhance celestial displays over the next 12 months. This phase only happens every 11 years making it something for many to look forward to.
It is marked by an increase in sun spots and solar flares which the Met Office say could lead to “an ongoing chance of further space weather activity, and ultimately the potential for aurora visibility here on Earth”.
The Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, have been seen regularly in the UK skies over recent weeks as result of solar winds from solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs) interacting with the atmosphere. With the solar maximum set to boost such occurrences, the likelihood of seeing the Northern Lights even at lower latitudes in the UK is expected to increase.
People in Northern Scotland, especially Shetland, often get the best views of the aurora. However it is anticipated that the spectacle will become more common across other parts of the country soon, reports Chronicle Live.
Krista Hammond, Space Weather Manager at the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre, said of the current solar cycle: “We’re now in the solar maximum phase, which means there’s more frequent sunspots and solar activity in general. While it’s not possible to know precisely what this means for individual Earth-directed solar events, it does mean there will likely be further chances of aurora visibility in the UK in the coming months.”
She warned that the solar maximum phase, which could last a year, makes it difficult to determine exactly when the number of sunspots peaked until after it has happened. The Met Office noted in a blog post that a geomagnetic storm caused by solar flares and CMEs in May was the strongest over two decades.
Following the solar maximum, the experts say solar activity will decrease, reaching the solar minimum. This will mean aurora sightings will become less frequent but will not disappear entirely.
Ms Hammond explained: “While the total number of sunspots will start to reduce after solar maximum, we will continue to see space weather throughout the solar cycle, even as overall activity declines. Indeed, in some solar cycles, the larger events can happen as the Sun transitions back towards solar minimum.”
