The Northern Lights lit up the sky with bright pink hues on Thursday evening. Photos of the dazzling natural phenomenon, also known as the aurora borealis, were captured across England.

The lights could be seen as far south as London, Kent and East Anglia.

Further north in Lancaster, Prof Jim Wild, 49, watched the Northern Lights from his backyard. The academic, who researches aurora and space weather at Lancaster University, said: “My research focuses on the physics of the connections between the Sun and Earth.

“Over the years I have been to the Arctic Circle several times to take measurements of the aurora, but it is really special to see the Northern Lights from your backyard with your whole family.”

The Met Office said relatively clear skies were forecast for much of Britain, creating “a fair chance of visibility”.

A spokesman for the forecaster said there had been “more space weather events in recent months”, including the Northern Lights, as the sun approached the peak of its solar cycle.

The aurorae, which are most often observed over high polar latitudes but can spread southward, are mainly influenced by geomagnetic storms that originate from solar activity.

The sun has a cycle of about 11 years. The peak activity of the sunspots on the Sun’s surface is called the solar maximum.

Sunspots provide the opportunity for Earth-directed bursts of large bursts of energy, called coronal mass ejections, that can lead to aurora visibility.

Aurora displays occur when charged particles collide with gases in Earth’s atmosphere around the magnetic poles. As they collide, light is emitted at different wavelengths, creating colorful displays in the sky.