Northern Lights: Spectacular display lights up NI

Aurora displays occur when charged particles collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere around the magnetic poles.

The Northern Lights appear as bright, swirling curtains of lights in the night sky and range in colour from green to pink and scarlet.

It is caused by charged particles from the sun collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere around the magnetic poles.

The colours occur due to different gases in the Earth’s atmosphere being energised by the charged particles.

The two most common gases in the Earth’s atmosphere are nitrogen and oxygen. Oxygen atoms glow green – the colour most often seen in the Northern Lights, while nitrogen atoms emit purple, blue and pink.

The most impressive auroras occur when the Sun emits really large clouds of particles called “coronal mass ejections”.