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Northern Lights visible in Connemara on 15 April 2025 Eoin Faherty
northern lights
Aurora Borealis to be visible in Ireland tonight - as long as it isn't cloudy
Irish Auroral forecasters predict that a geomagnetic storm will mean the lights are visible.
THE NORTHERN LIGHTS are expected to be visible across Ireland tonight, as long as clouds don’t get in the way, according to Irish solar forecasters.
Professor Peter Gallagher, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) Dunsink Observatory, told The Journal that there was a “big solar storm” two days ago that sent a burst of solar radiation towards Earth.
“[The models] show a geomagnetic storm tonight, down over Ireland. So that’s pretty much certain,” he said.
This particular solar storm is caused by two coronal mass ejections, or clouds of plasma which can sometimes erupt from the Sun during a solar flare. Gallagher said once this eruption is pointed at the Earth, it cause northern lights as the cloud of plasma interacts with our planet’s atmosphere.
“The question is whether or not it’d be cloudy in Ireland,” Gallagher said.
According to Met Éireann, despite the Status Yellow rain warning in place for five counties today, the forecast for this evening are “dry conditions and long clear spells for most [of the country].”
The lights were visible in parts of the south-west, west, and north of the country as well last night as the storm got underway.
Viewing the lights
To view the lights tonight, Gallagher recommends going outside once it’s dark, after 11pm. He also suggests avoiding city light pollution, and head as far north as possible.
“If you’re in Dublin City Center, Cork, or Galway city center, you’re just not gonna see anything. You’ve got to get away from city lights.”
He also said if you look at the lights from the south of the city, then you are looking through city lights to see the Aurora Borealis, and it may be faint.
He added that a camera, like one on your mobile phone, would be the best test to see the lights. The camera has a longer exposure than the human eye would have. Wil Cheng, an astronomer and fellow of the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society has shared some tips of how to get the best image of the lights.
Forecasting and then tracking when the aurora will be visible to us here in Ireland is a fine art. The Journal previously delved into exactly how you can do this here.
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