Northern Lights visible in Japan due to impact of solar flares

The Northern Lights were visible in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido and elsewhere in Japan on Wednesday night.

The lights, also known as the aurora borealis, lit up the night sky in prefectures including Hokkaido and Ishikawa.

A number of videos and images capturing the red glowing aurora in the night sky were posted on social media.

In a time-lapse video shot by an individual in Onuma Quasi-National Park in Hokkaido, the lower portion of the sky can be seen gradually changing from a pale red to a crimson.

Images taken at an astronomical observatory in Noto Town in Ishikawa Prefecture show the lower portion of the sky tinged with red.

Officials at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology and others say auroras, which are usually seen more frequently in the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, were visible in a lower latitude like Japan due to the impact of solar flares, explosions on the sun’s surface, which occurred on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, the institute is urging caution regarding GPS errors and malfunctions in disaster prevention radio systems caused by disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field due to the solar flares.