PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Monarch Airlines Birmingham To Birmingham
Old 21st Dec 2008, 14:47
  #19 (permalink)  
wiggy
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: The Winchester
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I've seen and photograhed Aurora from the Flight Deck for many years and I reckon headline advertising anything as a Northern Lights Flights is a bit imaginative...even with advances in technology and improved geomagnetic forecasts the darn things are about as reliable as a banker.....

FWIW you don't need to be near the Arctic Circle ( I've seen the Aurora Borealis from South Devon and the Aurora Australis from overhead Alice Springs) ) but you improve your chances by being near the Auroral Oval, which is roughly speaking centred on Magnetic North and, hence, geographically,a fair way North at European Longitudes. It's much further South over North America. Also the Aurora is more frequent around the equinoxes - which we are not at the moment and also around the peak of the 11 year Solar cycle-which we are also not....

Best bet..if you really do want to see Aurora save your money for another 4-5 years and then take a holiday to somewhere like North Dakota in March or September....
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