The Northern Lights have lit up skies across the UK and Ireland – with areas as far south as Kent being treated to bright pink and green hues.
Clear and crisp conditions, matched with the sun nearing the peak of its solar cycle, have led to astonishing displays in the night sky.
Aurora displays occur when charged particles collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere around the magnetic poles (Owen Humphreys/PA)As the particles collide with the atmosphere, light is emitted at various wavelengths, creating colourful displays in the sky (Jane Barlow/PA)Here, a refuge hut on the causeway to Holy Island in Northumberland gives a sense of the display’s majestic scale (Owen Humphreys/PA)The auroras on Earth, which are most commonly seen over high polar latitudes but can spread south, are chiefly influenced by geomagnetic storms which originate from activity on the Sun (Owen Humphreys/PA)The Northern Lights were also visible in Ireland, with this scene captured in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA)An eye-catching display above Great Chart Church in Ashford, Kent – showcasing how far south the aurora was visible (Gareth Fuller/PA)These images from Felixstowe, Suffolk, illustrate the peak of the solar activity which produced the aurora (Ella Pickover/PA)A lovely match of foreground and background as the lights appear over Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island in Northumberland (Owen Humphreys/PA)The sun works on a cycle of around 11 years called the solar cycle – with peak sunspot activity on the surface of the sun referred to as solar maximum (Owen Humphreys/PA)Sunspots give the potential for Earth-directed releases of large bursts of energy, called coronal mass ejections, which can lead to aurora visibility (Jane Barlow/PA)