Stargazers in Germany may be treated to a sky lit up by the Northern Lights on Sunday night.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has registered a mass ejection of charged particles from the sun heading towards Earth, which could trigger such a spectacle.

“The chances of seeing the Northern Lights for the coming night are indeed very high, even at mid-latitudes, meaning up to the Alpine region,” Carolin Liefke from the House of Astronomy in Heidelberg said. However, she noted that precise forecasts are, as always, difficult to make.

In Germany, the best prospects for viewing the colourful celestial display are in the centre of the country and the north-western half, from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia towards the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, a meteorologist from the German Weather Service said.

In the south and east, the meteorologist expects predominantly clouds, with occasional showers and thunderstorms. Nevertheless, he added that there could also be significant clear-sky periods in those areas.

The colourful lights in the sky can occur when mass ejections from the sun, which are massive clouds of charged particles, collide with Earth’s magnetic field.

The impact of the current mass ejection could trigger a severe geomagnetic storm of category G4, with Northern Lights visible over Europe and many US states, the private space weather service Spaceweather.com reported.

While this event will not be as strong as the famous storm in May 2024, it could be among the more significant events of the current solar cycle if a severe storm indeed develops, Spaceweather.com said.

The Northern Lights visible across large parts of Germany in May 2024 were triggered by a category G5 storm, the highest category.

The cycle of strong and weak solar activity occurs in approximately 11-year cycles. The current cycle is currently in its maximum phase, which can last a few years and is characterized by relatively frequent solar eruptions.