**The northern lights over Rossnowlagh Beach Donegal - Photo Donegal Weather Channel**

A Minor G1-class geomagnetic storm are underway with a high-speed stream of solar wind hitting earth at present as it grazes Earth's magnetic field. The gaseous material is flowing from a northern hole in the sun's atmosphere. There will be a chance of the aurora tonight across Ireland with the best chance across the northern half.

CAUSE OF TONIGHTS AURORA

The cause of tonight’s solar storm is the northern coronal hole which is sending the gaseous materia Plasma towards earth which can be predicted in advance as the coronal hole rotates into earth view.

WHAT IS A CORONAL HOLE?

Coronal holes are areas where the Sun's corona is colder, hence darker, and has lower-density plasma than average because there is lower energy and gas levels. Coronal holes are part of the Sun's corona and are constantly changing and reshaping because the corona is not uniform. The Sun contains magnetic fields that arch away from areas in the corona that are very thin due to the lower levels of energy and gas, which cause coronal holes to appear when they do not fall back. Thus, solar particles escape at a rate great enough to create a lower density and lower temperature in that area.

The image below shows the latest Coronal hole on the northern face of the sun

Tonights weather

Tonights weather forecast also looks good with clear spells forecast with the risk of frost with temperatures between 0C to 4C.

THE NORTHERN LIGHTS AURORA

The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and Aurora Australis (Southern Lights) are the result of electrons colliding with the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. (Protons cause faint and diffuse aurora, usually not easily visible to the human eye.) The electrons are energized through acceleration processes in the downwind tail (night side) of the magnetosphere and at lower altitudes along auroral field lines. The accelerated electrons follow the magnetic field of Earth down to the Polar Regions where they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms and molecules in Earth’s upper atmosphere. In these collisions, the electrons transfer their energy to the atmosphere thus exciting the atoms and molecules to higher energy states. When they relax back down to lower energy states, they release their energy in the form of light. This is similar to how a neon light works. The aurora typically forms 80 to 500 km above Earth’s surface.

For more information on the northern lights CLICK HERE

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