Sky-gazers as far north as Sydney and Perth could be in for a rare treat with an Aurora Australis expected to be visible on Wednesday night thanks to a “severe” solar storm.

The phenomenon also known as the southern lights is expected to light up the night sky across southern and into central Australia and should be visible to millions of people from just after sunset Wednesday until the early hours of Thursday morning.

While the aurora mostly occurs closer to the magnetic poles, the geomagnetic storm currently striking Earth — which was on Wednesday upgraded to severe — means the stunning light show will be visible from further away.

The storm was caused by several large solar flares and is expected to shower the Earth in high-energy plasma about the same time.

When colliding with the

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