northen lights over lincolnshire!

this has been bugging me for a while now, but when i was probably 20- 21 (late 80's early 90's) i seem to remember that due to some freak atmospheric conditions the northern lights were visible from most locations around the world and can remember quite clearly seeing them from stamford in lincolnshire where i lived at the time, can anyone tell me what might have caused this??? admittedly it didn't mean anything to me at the time other than "oooh look at the pretty colours in the sky" but knowing what i know now, what size of solar flare could have caused this kind of reaction a couple of thousand miles from the poles? and does anyone else remember this happening?? i can be at best described as an amateur astronomer/physicist so please phage/internos/ozweatherman you dont have to dumb it down to much, but an explanation i can understand would be nice!!!

I am not internos, Phage or Oz, but since none of them seem to be online right now, I wanted to tell you that the aurora borealis (northern lights) can in fact occasionally be seen in the night sky over Britain.


Photograph of an aurora near Monikie, north of Dundee, Scotland, 30th October 2003.

Here is some info about what causes this beautiful phenomena, from the website AuroraWatch (Lancaster University):

Although most of the plasma of the solar wind is diverted around the magnetosphere, geomagnetic storms can produce energetic particles inside the magnetosphere. When the particles reach the top of the atmosphere, they soon run into one of the molecules in the air. The collision stops the incoming particle and makes the air molecule light up. (The same system is used on a much smaller scale in a TV set - a beam of electrons from the back of the tube hits phosphor on the inside of the screen and makes it light up.) The light given off in the top of the atmosphere is visible from the ground if it is dark enough - the lights are known as the aurora borealis (northern lights) in the northern hemisphere, and the aurora australis in the southern hemisphere.

At this website you can also monitor geomagnetic activity in real time, and know when aurora can se seen from the UK. You can even be alerted when there may be visible aurora!

We offer a free Aurora Alert email service to warn you whenever aurora are likely to be seen across Britain. These alerts can be forwarded to your phone as a text message, so you will know when to look out for aurora wherever you are.

Learn more about aurora borealis here:
www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk...


[edit on 16/2/09 by ziggystar60]

thats what i love about this site, i have half a memory of something that might have happened 20 years ago and someone comes along and explains it!! god i love science! thanks ziggy, the links and explanation were a great help, i have to admit i didn't realise it was such a common occurrence to see the northern lights in the uk, but how come they were seen so far south? stamfords a very long way from scotland!

reply to post by Neilc1972


If your memory is accurate as to the date there was indeed a very large solar storm which created in turn a very large magnetic storm in Earths' magnetic field. This was a very out of the ordinary event. The result was auroral displays very much further south than normally encountered. There was also a massive power outage in Quebec, caused by the storm.
www.solarstorms.org...

89 sounds about right, i seem to remember something about a freak event, that must have been it, in fact they seem to be quite famous solar storms from around that time there's some more info here if anyone's interested

www.valdostamuseum.org...

thanks phage, you hit the nail right on the head me old mate

edit to add this quote just because JESUS THATS BIG!!

"In early March, an area of sunspots large enough to contain 70 earth-size planets had come into view around the eastern rim of the glowing orb." (LEON JAROFF)

[edit on 17-2-2009 by Neilc1972]