The renowned aurora has been seen this year in a few locations as far south as the UK, yielding breathtaking images in the process.
Due to this, there were claims of aurora sightings on Thursday night throughout the United Kingdom, extending as far south as Sussex.
Viewings were predicted by the Met Office to be possible in the north of England and the Midlands, and they were expected in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
But far beyond this, for a great many Britons, they were seen, partly due to comparatively bright sky.
Although they can occasionally spread south across portions of the UK, auroras are most frequently seen over high arctic latitudes.
The solar maximum, which is the term for the highest sunspot activity on the sun’s cycle of about 11 years, is the source of the geomagnetic storms that mostly affect them.
Aurora visible emissions can occur when sunspots send massive energy bursts known as coronal mass ejections (CME) toward Earth.
