Northern lights: "It was just everywhere all around us"
Mathew Owens, Professor of Space Physics at the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading speaks to CGTN Europe about the rare spectacle and its causes.
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00:00 People across northern Europe have been enjoying a spectacular celestial display,
00:05 the aurora borealis, known as the northern lights.
00:08 The phenomenon is usually only visible near the Earth's polar regions.
00:13 It was caused by the most powerful solar storm in more than two decades,
00:17 with scientists warning of possible disruption to satellites and power grids.
00:22 Well, let's get some more analysis about what's going on with one of those scientists,
00:26 Matthew Owens, Professor of Space Physics at the Meteorology Department at the University of Reading here in the UK.
00:32 Thank you very much indeed for joining us.
00:35 So this was a historic geomagnetic storm with large solar flares.
00:41 It might be very beautiful to look at, but I was just listing some of those effects,
00:45 you know, satellites being affected and power grids.
00:48 Should we be concerned about this?
00:51 I mean, we are concerned about this, and that's why we have routine forecasting
00:57 and liaison with the interested parties, you know, power companies, satellite operators, to try and minimize the risks.
01:06 We have seen a few effects from this most recent storm.
01:11 We've seen the Starlink satellites have been struggling a little bit.
01:16 There will have been extra stress on the power grids, but there haven't been any catastrophic failures.
01:22 So that's great. You know, the infrastructure is resilient and built to withstand these things.
01:28 Well, that's reassuring to hear, certainly.
01:30 I remember this happening last year where we could see the Northern Lights in places as far south as Sussex,
01:36 parts of the UK and other parts of Europe.
01:39 I don't remember this happening before, though, where this could be seen so far south.
01:43 I mean, how rare is this?
01:46 Yeah, it is pretty rare. I mean, southern Florida got pretty good auroral displays, and Italy and south of France.
01:55 Even in Reading, actually, we went out and you expect to look north and see a bit of a green glow on the horizon,
02:01 but actually it was just everywhere all around us.
02:04 You know, you see aurora to the south, you go home and open your cupboard and there's aurora there, too.
02:09 It was just amazing. And it is rare, like you say.
02:15 I think what's really rare is the confluence of having a big one in 20, one in 30 year solar storm and clear skies.
02:23 That's really helped.
02:24 And do we know why this is happening? Why there are these solar storms that are so powerful?
02:30 Yeah, I mean, these eruptions from the sun are commonplace. They happen almost every day.
02:37 It's rare. You know, Earth needs to be in the firing line for it to have an effect and generate aurora.
02:44 It just so happens that there was an absolutely huge sunspot pointed right at Earth a few days ago.
02:52 You could go out and if you've got eclipse goggles, you can see it with your naked eye.
02:56 It's that big. And it just happened to fire six or seven or eight or maybe nine eruptions at us, one after the other.
03:06 And they all barrelled together in interplanetary space.
03:09 It was a complete mess between the sun and the Earth. And they're slowly washing over us now.
03:14 OK. And just finally, very briefly, those of us who missed it last night, including me, I was tucked up in bed,
03:19 even though apparently it could be seen in London. Is it going to happen again tonight? Where could people see it?
03:25 Well, there are another couple of eruptions that we're predicting will arrive sometime in the early hours.
03:33 I suspect it might be after most of our bedtimes in the UK.
03:38 But the uncertainty in when these these particular eruptions will arrive is big because there's just been so much going on.
03:45 The whole system is a bit of a mess. So we might get lucky. But I suspect we've seen the best of it.
03:54 All right. Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed. Fascinating stuff.
03:56 Thank you so much, Professor Matthew Owens from the University of Reading. Much appreciated.