The Northern lights amazed local residents when they appeared clearly visible across Horsham and Sussex.
Horsham social media groups were flooded with photographs of the aurora borealis on Friday evening and Saturday morning.
We at Visit Horsham used our drone to capture a 360-degree image of the spectacular display as seen from Horsham.
The 360-degree image clearly shows the centre of the aurora occurring when the observer is looking towards (magnetc) North, hence the more common name: the Northern Lights (magnetic North is a few degrees West of the True North indicated by the compass icon on the image).
Auroras result from disturbances in the Earth's magnetosphere caused by the solar wind and usually occur at high latitudes.
The Northern Lights became visible in Horsham due to a series of intense solar flares emitted from the Sun's surface. These flares sent a shockwave of magnetically charged plasma directly at the Earth, producing incredibly vivid displays of colour across the skies.
