Aurora Borealis Sunday May 12: What the Aurora Borealis actually means

The northern lights are expected to be visible again over the UK this evening after a series of stunning natural light shows this weekend. Friday night, May 10, saw the most impressive displays of the Aurora Borealis, as the aurora borealis was photographed in Kingston, Croydon and Bromley, among other parts of the city.

A group of sunspots appears to have merged with each other to become a giant super sunspot 17 times the size of Earth, which is unleashing massive solar flares and plasma towards our planet. This meant an “extreme” G5 solar storm was sent towards earth – the highest classification.

When they come into contact with the Earth, the geomagnetic field interacts with them, producing this beautiful ethereal display of color in our sky. The last time a G5 storm hit Earth in October 2003, it caused power outages in Sweden.

READ MORE: New aurora borealis alert for England on Sunday May 12 – and how to get phone notifications

As we look forward to another night of the aurora borealis, many people wonder where its official term “Aurora Borealis” comes from. If you take the simple translation from Latin, the word aurora means “dawn”, while “borealis” refers to the event that occurs in the northern hemisphere.

Since these natural light displays also occurred in Tasmania and Argentina this weekend, the technical term for this is Aurora Australis, as they occurred in the Southern Hemisphere.

The term aurora borealis was coined by the Italian astronomer Galileo in 1619. He used the names of the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas.

Mythology says that the Aurora traveled from east to west heralding the coming of the sun, while the ancient Greeks used the corresponding name Eos to refer to the dawn, often noting the play of colors in the otherwise dark sky.

As with borealis, the term australis refers to the god of the south wind, Auster. Tonight (Sunday, May 12), displays of the aurora borealis are expected to grace our skies once again.

Channel 4 weather presenter Liam Dutton told X “** LATEST NOAA SPACE FORECAST** More Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are expected to arrive on Sunday. This means another strong or extreme geomagnetic storm is likely.

“So there may be another UK-wide display of the aurora borealis on Sunday evening – cloud permitting.” And he later added: “Geomagnetic activity will increase again today, however, like last night, peak activity may not coincide with darkness. There will also be much more cloud tonight with limited clear spells. So the chances of noticing will be somewhat reduced.”

Scientists group AuroraWatch UK issued a yellow alert on Sunday morning (May 12), saying the phenomenon could be visible to the naked eye in some areas and with wider camera equipment. The aurora borealis, also known as the aurora borealis, emerged this weekend after the Met Office confirmed a rare severe geomagnetic storm warning for this weekend – the first for nearly 20 years.

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