Doncaster has been treated to a display of the Northern Lights over night – with the aurora borealis clearly visible in the city’s skies in the early hours.

Skies across the UK were lit up with a dazzling display, caused by the largest solar storm in over two decades.

The light display could be seen in parts of Scotland, Wales and the northeast of the UK on Tuesday night and the same areas were treated to another display in the early hours of this morning too.

There have recently been a series of big solar storms which have, in turn, increased the number of supercharged particles interacting with the atmospheric gasses, creating the colourful aurora.

The Northen Lights above Doncaster (left at Marr, photo by Lesley White) and right at Sandall Park, photo courtesy of Sandall Park.

placeholder image — The Northen Lights above Doncaster (left at Marr, photo by Lesley White) and right at Sandall Park, photo courtesy of Sandall Park.

Auroras are the result of disturbances in the Earth's magnetosphere caused by enhanced speeds of solar wind from coronal holes and coronal mass ejections.

These disturbances alter the trajectories of charged particles into the upper atmosphere with the resulting ionization emitting light of varying colour and complexity.