Aurora delight: Stargazers from New Zealand to the US treated to dazzling Northern, Southern Lights

Social media in New Zealand lit up again on Monday as the Aurora Australis, or the Southern Lights, put up a spectacular display across the country.

Stargazers have been capturing stunning images of the lights over the past few days.

But a “solar tsunami” was expected to be seen more widely than normal on Monday.

“A good way of thinking about what we’re experiencing is a solar tsunami – we’ve got a wave of material coming from the Sun and crashing into the Earth’s magnetic field,” Professor Craig Rodger, physics professor at New Zealand’s University of Otago, said.

The lights have so far been spotted all over New Zealand, including the capital Wellington and the South Island city of Queenstown.

The spectacle was also expected as far north as Auckland, Stuff New Zealand news website said.

Parts of Australia, such as the southern states of Victoria and Tasmania, witnessed the event as well.

Prof Rodger predicted a “stonking geomagnetic storm” for Monday night.

The phenomenon had started at about 6am local time on Monday.

This means it would have had all day to build into a “really big event”, Prof Rodger said.

Both the Aurora Australis and Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights in the northern hemisphere, have been particularly active following recent solar storms, broadcaster RNZ reported in March, when another stunning display occurred.

A similar display has dazzled people across North America and Europe, in places where the phenomenon normally does not occur.

The spectacle in the northern hemisphere was potentially visible as far south as Iowa in the United States, as well as parts of southern England, scientists said.

The Northern Lights are usually seen in parts of Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, and Alaska.

But last Friday, the Sun let off a large burst of energy, said Mr Robert Steenburgh, a space scientist with the Space Weather Prediction Centre at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That burst of energy, which has its own magnetic field, had been moving through space and reached Earth’s magnetic field on Sunday, when the two collided to create a geomagnetic storm, he said.

When this happens, the aurora can be seen closer to the Equator, Mr Steenburgh said.

On Sunday evening, forecasters in the US said the geomagnetic storm was likely to cast an aurora that could be seen from some northern states like Maine and Michigan.

Britain’s national weather service, the Met Office, predicted that Scotland and northern England would be able to see the lights, with another chance to view them on Monday night into Tuesday.

According to the National Geographic, an aurora’s colours are determined by the compositions and densities of atmospheric gases – mostly oxygen and nitrogen – found at different altitudes.

The red hues are the highest of the aurora colours and appear above 240km in the atmosphere.

Bright greens are most common between 100km and 240km above the Earth’s surface.

In the very thick lower atmosphere, less than 100km above the planet’s surface, a purplish mix of red and blue lights would be visible.