« My daughter Juliette sent me these photos taken from her office this Thursday at 10:50 p.m. The Northern Lights are not very common in our region. These photos were taken in Vaulx-Vraucourt, near Bapaume. My daughter tells me: due north, camera on 8» , writes a loyal reader of Templemars, sending us impressive photos.
At the origin of this phenomenon, an intense solar storm which hit the Earth this Thursday. With particles moving at a speed of four million kilometers per hour, this corresponds to a level 4 geomagnetic storm on a scale of 5, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The geomagnetic storm continues, new northern lights could be observable during the night of this Friday, October 11 to Saturday, October 12.
These northern lights were visible in many French departments, such as for example in Indre, the Alpes-Maritimes, or in Finistère, where magnificent photos were shared by Internet users.
The Northern Lights have also been observed in other countries, and even thousands of kilometers from here, for example in Edinburgh (Scotland), or New York (United States).
Why so many Northern Lights in recent months?
Every 11 years solar activity experiences a peak in its activity, therefore sending more energetic particles which interact with the earth’s atmosphere. And there, the peak is for 2025. During these periods, the particles interact above all at the magnetic poles of the Earth, and these interactions can be visible even further from these magnetic poles than the solar storm which makes them reach us is strong.
The larger the particle flows, the more the northern lights, which necessarily start at the poles following the funnel shape of the magnetic field, are visible at low altitudes. And in France, it is us, residents of the Nord and Pas-de-Calais and more particularly the Côte d’Opale who are closest to the polar circle and therefore who have the most probability of seeing the Northern Lights!
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