THE phenomenon known as the ‘Northern Lights’ shined bright across Cornwall through the night of January 19 after a solar storm led to the stunning sight being visible to the Cornish eye.

The Aurora Borealis was visible after colossal solar flare launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the surface of the sun the previous night led to the spectacular sight in our skies.

While not usually visible from Cornwall, the coronal mass injection delivered strong geomagnetic storm conditions that brought the northern lights bring the aurora borealis further south than usual.

Ahead of the event, the Met Office, which provides a space forecast said of the phenomenon: “A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that departed the Sun on January 18 reached Earth on the evening of January 19. G4/Severe geomagnetic storms were observed, producing widespread auroras visible across the UK, with reports extending as far south as northern Italy.

“By the evening of January 20, auroral activity is expected to decline, though it may still be visible in parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, and other similar latitudes with clear skies. Auroras are then forecast to return to background levels for the remainder of the period.”

The lights, also known as Aurora Borealis, splashed vivid red, pink and green colours, which resulted in stunning images being captured.

The lights are the result of solar eruptions sending particles towards Earth and the subsequent interaction of those particles with the Earth's atmosphere.

Meteorologists advise a long exposure camera is used to capture the auroras, as the phenomenon is not always visible with the naked eye.

What used to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for people to see it in the UK – or a bucket list trip to the Arctic circle – has become more common in the last couple of years.

The reason for this was explained by the Met Office, who added: “The Sun goes through an 11 year solar cycle, from solar minimum, through solar maximum and back to solar minimum. Solar maximum occurred in early 2014 so we are now in the declining phase of the solar cycle.

“During this phase the position of coronal holes on the Sun's equator give rise to high speed solar wind streams that buffet the Earth, disturbing the Earth's magnetic field and increasing the likelihood of auroras. In other parts of the solar cycle these disturbances are largely the result of coronal mass ejections, which can give larger magnitude disturbances than these high speed streams.”