Skies over the UK were turned shades of pink and green last month as the Northern Lights produced incredible displays. Deepak Dembla took this photo from Wanstead Flats
Sometimes, dreams turn into realities. Watching auroras from London was one of those dreams, and many of us witnessed this amazing spectacle on 10 May 2024. I am an IT professional by trade, but photography and stargazing are among my passions.
Our sun sends a lot of heat and light – along with other energy – our way via solar winds. Sometimes, we get solar storms (scientifically known as coronal mass ejection or CME for short), during which the sun sends out a huge bubble of electrified gas that can travel through space at high speeds. When a solar storm from the sun reaches earth, it creates geomagnetic storms. Here, energy from the sun interacts with gases in our atmosphere, resulting in a beautiful display of light in the sky known as an aurora (Northern Lights). Oxygen gives off green and red light. Nitrogen glows blue and purple.
The solar storm that hit earth on Friday, 10 May, travelled at speeds up to three million miles per hour, creating a long-lasting geomagnetic storm that reached a rating of G5 – the highest level on the geomagnetic storm scale, and one that hasn’t been seen since 2003. Usually, auroras are confined towards the poles, but this storm caused auroras to be seen all across the UK.
We are approaching the solar maximum, an 11-year cycle when our sun is very active. The best guess we have from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory’s space weather modelling is this will be in July 2025, but it could happen months sooner or later. As we approach that solar maximum, we can expect more geomagnetic storms to pop up.
I started taking photos on Wanstead Flats from 10pm and finished at 3.30am. To the naked eye, I could see hazy patches of green and pink, but long exposures brought out the full colour. It was an epic show and hopefully there will be more to come in the future.
To view more of Deepak’s photos of the Northern Lights, visit wnstd.com/deepak
