SCIENCE – You may have been sleeping, but purple and pink lights appeared over France overnight from Sunday to Monday, February 27. An incredible spectacle also observed on the other side of the Channel, among our British and Irish neighbors.
These aurora borealis dazzled the French who were not in the arms of Morpheus. This Monday morning, several scientists share magnificent photos of the phenomenon observed in particular in Poitou, Burgundy or even in Pas-de-Calais, as you can see below:
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While you slept peacefully, aurora borealis were observed in France and immortalized by the pa… https://t.co/IevDmcIl0L
— Dr. Serge Zaka (Dr. Zarge) (@SergeZaka)
Another snapshot published just now on Photolive, from the North of France this time: https://t.co/PmPUzX6ymj #aurores https://t.co/tsGMqCQeHy
— Asso Infoclimat (@infoclimat)
Last night Northern Lights were seen across much of #Germany. This photo was… https://t.co/G5rihouFzF
— VendéeVoile (@VG2020D)
Further north in the UK the colors were even more pronounced, with hues of green and blue. Hundreds of internet users and British media posted images on Twitter, with some claiming to have seen the celestial spectacle as far away as Cornwall in south-west England.
A coronal hole high speed stream arrived this evening combined with a rather fast coronal mass ejection leading to… https://t.co/XKAJO7vUv3
— Met Office (@metoffice)
Northern lights in St Albans, Hertfordshire, tonight. Unbelievable. https://t.co/zi7u5oEKvu
— Joel Rabinowitz (@joel_archie)
Did you see the northern lights last night?
There was an incredible display and was even spotted in southern Engl… https://t.co/dwrYM5hU1P
— BBC Weather (@bbcweather)
Aurora at Ardmore, Armagh. Loving the breathtaking shots by everyone of last nights events from around UK and Irela… https://t.co/3aVi78w2dy
— Simon Brown (@savbrown)
“Coronal Mass Ejection”
The aurora borealis or australis are usually visible near the North and South poles. These are places “magnetic” on Earth, where charged particles (electrons and protons) collide with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere, as explained in thecanadian space agency.
In Europe, the phenomenon might have occurred this night because the activity of the Sun has been very sustained for several days, “and a coronal mass ejection (CME) has reached Earth in the past few hours”, indicate the experts of Info climat. The arrival of a CME can cause auroras at lower latitudes, and it is in these circumstances that the lights can be seen, says the British meteorological service, the Met Office.
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If the weather is clear, he believes the Northern Lights will likely be visible in parts of the UK once more tonight. Just keep your fingers crossed for the phenomenon to be observable once more in France.
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