Northern lights photographed by Andy Gray on Nov 27 @ Northumberland, UK
http://t.co/SkiAiCOKPq #aurora pic.twitter.com/FV0Bxl9HAf
— Observing Space (@ObservingSpace) February 27, 2014
This was the night of the COMET ISON perihelion and sublimation event November 27th. The cosmic wind would carry particles in a cone shape away from far side of the sun. So it is just a coincidence? But then maybe the sublimation happened over many days even a couple of weeks (not a single explosion) and perhaps particles were projected earthwards.
See : https://twitter.com/search?q=%23aurora&src=hash for todays aurora news as the earth continues its pass through Comet ISON’s trailing particles.