The Northern Lights can be seen in parts of the UK tonight

The Met Office said the Northern Lights could be seen across northern England tonight.

Also known as the Northern Lights, this phenomenon often appears over Iceland and Norway, but can occasionally be seen in the UK.

Generally, sightings are restricted to Scotland.

According to the Met Office, a “combination of fast solar wind” and “recently arriving solar coronal mass ejections” could cause the phenomenon from Sunday night into Monday morning.

The Northern Lights are the result of particles from the sun being carried by the solar wind and then directed through the Earth’s magnetic field to the polar regions where they interact with the Earth’s atmosphere.

According to the Royal Observatory Greenwich, different gases have different effects on the color of your display.

Green represents solar particles interacting with oxygen, while purple, blue or pink is caused by nitrogen.

read more:
Skies over Scotland turn red and green
Northern Lights visible over Iceland

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The deep red color sometimes seen is the result of interactions between solar particles and oxygen at very high altitudes.

The lights will only be visible across the UK in “adverse space weather conditions” – and even then stargazers will need clear skies and less light pollution.