Northern Lights could brighten up Scotland's skies for second night

The Northern Lights could brighten up Scotland’s skies for a second night after a dazzling display across the country on Saturday night.

Stargazers throughout the country were treated to the glow from the aurora borealis from Greenock, to Stirlingshire and Edinburgh.

The phenomenon is most visible in the time around the equinoxes in spring and autumn and is triggered by solar activity.

STV meteorologist Sean Batty said the Northern Lights could be visible in the UK again on Sunday and Monday night.

Insight Sean Batty

There’s another chance of seeing the Northern Lights tonight with elevated aurora activity expected once again.

The best spots will be in the north and east of the country, as cloud will start to spread into the west of the country later.

The aurora is one of those things on many peoples bucket lists, and each year thousands of people venture to Scandinavia and Iceland to see natures magical light display, but sometimes we’re lucky enough to see them here in Scotland.

The sun constantly releases a stream of charged particles (mainly electrons and protons) called the solar wind. Occasionally there are what I’d call eruptions or solar burps which come from the sun, also called a solar storm, which sends a huge mass of these charged particles hurtling out into space.

When the particles hit the earth’s magnetic field most of the particles are deflected – a bit like how the Voyager in Star Trek protected itself from bad stuff! The only thing is the magnetic field is weaker at the poles and this means some of the particles get in, and when these particles smash into oxygen and nitrogen molecules high in our atmosphere energy is released in the form of light to create these massive displays that we see.