THE Northern Lights will be visible across Britain tonight as our planet is bombarded by a solar storm.

Parts of Scotland and even England will be able to see the Aurora Borealis, which will illuminate the sky with a beautiful pink and green glow.

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People living in Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland should be able to see the astonishing display, as long as the sky is clear and they are watching from a dark area away from city lights.

However, the storm is so strong that it might be visible from further south in the country.

Auroras light up the sky whenever a stream of supercharged particles known as the solar wind smashes into our planet's atmosphere.

This radioactive breeze is particularly strong at the moment, because a hole called a corona has recently opened up on the sun's surface.

This raging tempest has prompted Aurorawatch UK to issue a red alert, which indicates the Northern Lights could be visible across the nation.

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It wrote: "It is likely that aurora will be visible by eye and camera from anywhere in the UK.

"Viewing aurora requires clear, dark skies away from light pollution."

The solar wind ignited an aurora last month, but tonight the storm is expected to be even stronger.

The Met Office's space weather forecast for today predicted "elevated solar winds" due to "minor to moderate geomagnetic storms".

Last night, : "As predicted, a stream of high-speed solar wind hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 25th, sparking geomagnetic storms around both poles.

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"More auroras are in the offing. This solar wind stream is broad and fast; it is currently blowing at more than 700 kilometres per second s and is expected to influence our planet for some days to come.

"High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras on October 26 to 27."

The radiation of the solar wind plays havoc with modern technology and could knock out the satellites which keep modern civilisation connected.