Stargazers could be in for a treat after the Met Office announced that a “once-in-decade” solar event is coming. The weather experts have revealed that NASA has confirmed the start of a ‘solar maximum’, expected to enhance celestial displays over the next 12 months.
This phase, which happens every 11 years, is characterised by an increase in sun spots and solar flares. The Met Office suggests this 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 already been seen in the UK skies recently, thanks to solar winds from solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs) interacting with our 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.
While Northern Scotland, especially Shetland, is often the best spot in the UK to see the aurora, there’s anticipation that the spectacle will become more common across other parts of the country soon.
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.”, reports Chronicle Live.
Ms Hammond added 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 in two decades.
After the solar maximum, solar activity will decrease, reaching the solar minimum, during which aurora sightings will become less frequent. However they 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.”