Stunning Northern Lights show envelops HMS Portland during patrol in Scotland's Hebrides
HMS Portland and her crew witnessed a stunning display of the Northern Lights during a patrol in the Hebrides.
A post on the Royal Navy's HMS Portland's Twitter account shows images of an incredible display of the Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights and one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
A solar storm and clear skies resulted in sightings as far south as Cambridgeshire on Sunday night, and in northern Scotland on Monday night.
Mark Gibbs, head of space weather at the Met Office, explained that the clarity of the Northern Lights is the result of a perfect combination of a cloud-free sky, clear air, and a dim moon.
The activity over the past few days was the result of a large solar storm, which Mr Gibbs said was not unusual for this point in the solar cycle.
"What we saw (on Sunday) was a bubble of magnetised plasma particles that had come off the sun, and they happened to be heading towards the Earth, in this instance," he said.
"It took about two days for those particles to arrive from the sun, then the particles enter the Earth's upper atmosphere and excite atoms.
"The most common sight is green, which is the result of oxygen atoms being excited. (On Sunday) night, we saw some reds and purples, indicative of nitrogen atoms being excited," he added.
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