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Wales Online
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Elizabeth Thomas

Where and when you can spot the Northern Lights in Wales tonight

A rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights could be experienced by people on Monday, March 14.

According to the Met Office, a coronal mass ejection (CME) arrived at Earth on Sunday, March 13, with the aurora expected to be "slightly enhanced" today as a result.

As the aurora borealis is mostly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic), a glimpse in the UK is rare for stargazers.

Read more: Solar storm could cause Aurora Northern Lights display to be seen in UK on Monday

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) forecast gives an 80% chance that Earth will experience a major storm on Monday, March 14. Within its prediction, there is a 20% chance that the UK will be affected by the storm.

The lights were captured on camera by Andy Price on Sunday night, after he travelled to Llangrannog to capture the phenomena.

While the lights were not visible to the eye, Andy was able to capture them through a 30 second exposure on his camera.

According to the Met Office's space weather forecast, the auroral oval is expected to be slightly enhanced "at times" on Monday, March 14, due to a coronal mass ejection arriving at Earth on Sunday.

While effects are expected to start waning through the day, aurora sightings are "still likely" at high latitudes.

A rare display of the Northern Lights over Llangrannog on March 13, captured by Andy Price (Andy Price)

When and where to see the Northern Lights

The best place to see the lights is from somewhere high up and as dark as possible, so remote areas away from light pollution are the best places to be.

Wales has been awarded three official dark sky zones by the International Dark Sky Association.

Both Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons national parks are Dark Sky Reserves - two of only 19 in the world - and in 2015, the Elan Valley estate near Rhayader in Powys gained Dark Sky Park status.

The lights can be seen any time after it gets dark, but between 10pm and midnight is statistically the most likely time to see them.

According to AuroraWatch UK, this is when aurora substorms generally tend to peak.

However, it is difficult to work out exactly when the lights will be visible. Many people keep track of alerts, which can you tell you when activity is at its highest, such as those AuroraWatch UK sends out on Twitter.

Andy Price captured the display on camera (Andy Price)

What causes the Northern Lights?

According to the Met Office, the lights occur as a consequence of solar activity and result from "collisions of charged particles in the solar wind colliding with molecules in the Earth's upper atmosphere".

"Solar winds are charged particles that stream away from the Sun at speeds of around 1 million miles per hour," the Met Office website says.

"When the magnetic polarity of the solar wind is opposite to the Earth's magnetic field, the two magnetic fields combine allowing these energetic particles to flow into the Earth's magnetic north and south poles.

"Auroras usually occur in a band called the annulus (a ring about 1,865 miles across) centred on the magnetic pole.

"The arrival of a Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) from the Sun can cause the annulus to expand, bringing the aurora to lower latitudes. It is under these circumstances that the lights can be seen in the UK."

The Met Office says that the different colours that can be seen are due to the different gas molecules, and where they are in the atmosphere.

Oxygen gives off green light when it is hit 60 miles above the Earth, while all-red auroras are produced at 100 to 200 miles rare.

Nitrogen causes the sky to glow blue yet when higher in the atmosphere the glow has a purple hue.

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