During the heat burst in early May we also experienced one of the best displays of the aurora borealis. As one sky watcher put it, the category 5 geomagnetic storm would not disturb the darling buds of May. It was a sight to behold though.
Prof Haswell, head of astronomy at the Open University, said the different colours seen within the Northern Lights are formed by different gases above the Earth’s surface. He explained: “Green comes from oxygen which is about 80 to 250 miles above the Earth’s surface.
“The purple, blue and pink comes from nitrogen and when you get a very strong aurora sometimes you see a sort of scarlet red, and that comes from oxygen which is higher in the earth’s atmosphere, at an altitude of about 180 miles.” One can imagine in olden days that such displays would be taken as portents from the gods.
