Aurora, Thursday night
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None but a blockhead
Joined: Nov 1999
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From: London, UK
Aurora, Thursday night
Flying back in seat 50K from SFO on VS20 on Thursday night/Friday morning, our track took us across the north of Hudson Bay. At around 0300GMT, with the cabin lights down and all the blinds closed, I snuck a peek out. There was a superb aurora to the south, apparently just above the wing, and even though the strobe and various reflections from within the cabin made it difficult viewing - I couldn't see any stars - the sight was absolutely enthralling. It continued for at least half an hour, fading in and out, but at its peak it went from horizon to horizon with vast, rippling streamers of white or pale blue light changing faster than anything that size has any right to change.
This is the first time I've seen an aurora, so it was particularly exciting. The urge to wake everyone up was extreme but resistible; I contented myself by confirming with one of the cabin crew that it was what I thought it was (at first, it was mostly just a glow and I didn't want to be mistaken - the full-on curtains of light came later), and a few people in nearby seats overheard and got their own eyefull.
The sun's been extraordinarily quiet of late - some solar physicists think we may be about to enter a prolonged period of few sunspots similar to the Maunder Minimum of 1645-1710, which rather worryingly coincided with the Little Ice Age, so I'm doubly thrilled by catching this one.
How common are auroras visible from flight like this? Should I be looking out more often? The only other comparable spectacle I've seen was a couple of years ago flying back at night from Beijing in late February, where a huge storm system off the Egyptian coast produced a vast line of thunderstorms that were nearly constantly lit up from within by lightning - which I subsequently discovered are called Chinese Lanterns.
If it looks that good from the back of the aircraft, I can only imagine what the view from the flight deck is like.
This is the first time I've seen an aurora, so it was particularly exciting. The urge to wake everyone up was extreme but resistible; I contented myself by confirming with one of the cabin crew that it was what I thought it was (at first, it was mostly just a glow and I didn't want to be mistaken - the full-on curtains of light came later), and a few people in nearby seats overheard and got their own eyefull.
The sun's been extraordinarily quiet of late - some solar physicists think we may be about to enter a prolonged period of few sunspots similar to the Maunder Minimum of 1645-1710, which rather worryingly coincided with the Little Ice Age, so I'm doubly thrilled by catching this one.
How common are auroras visible from flight like this? Should I be looking out more often? The only other comparable spectacle I've seen was a couple of years ago flying back at night from Beijing in late February, where a huge storm system off the Egyptian coast produced a vast line of thunderstorms that were nearly constantly lit up from within by lightning - which I subsequently discovered are called Chinese Lanterns.
If it looks that good from the back of the aircraft, I can only imagine what the view from the flight deck is like.
Joined: Sep 2008
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From: Blighty
SLF - have you perhaps considered going to somewhere like Tromso in March 2013 for a few days ?
Alternatively, I believe that from some UK airports, non-landing sightseeing flights operate solely for the purpose of Aurora spotting
Alternatively, I believe that from some UK airports, non-landing sightseeing flights operate solely for the purpose of Aurora spotting
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 6,726
Likes: 103
From: The Winchester
Self Loading Freight
They're a fairly common sight on the route you described, you'd probably see some sort of Auroral display on 50% of the Flights over Hudson's Bay around Solar Maximum, although not always as active as the display you describe. The Auroral Oval, the area centred on Magnetic North that is subject to the highest density of displays, runs over Hudsons Bay, hence the frequency. As for views from the Flight Deck, they can be much better than from the pax Cabin; if you get the lighting right down it's quite easy to see any colours and a particularly active Coronal display, where you are directly under the rays, is utterly overwhelming from the Flight Deck because you can look vertically upwards into the ray structure.
I know of one pilot
who used to fly this route so often that he logged the displays and forwarded the data to the folks in the UK who research that sort of thing; the observations were used to fill in the gaps in surface observations left be the demise of North Atlantic weather ships......
BTW I reckon my most remarkable Auroral "spot" was the Aurora Australis seen in flight from North West of Alice Springs a few years back.....
Tromso would be fun, if the sky was clear....as for sightseeing flights - always thought they were a bit of a lottery, but then I've been spoilt by the view from the Flight Deck...
I know of one pilot
who used to fly this route so often that he logged the displays and forwarded the data to the folks in the UK who research that sort of thing; the observations were used to fill in the gaps in surface observations left be the demise of North Atlantic weather ships......BTW I reckon my most remarkable Auroral "spot" was the Aurora Australis seen in flight from North West of Alice Springs a few years back.....
Tromso would be fun, if the sky was clear....as for sightseeing flights - always thought they were a bit of a lottery, but then I've been spoilt by the view from the Flight Deck...
Thread Starter
None but a blockhead
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 534
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From: London, UK
Wiggy - yes, it's the lottery aspect of going on deliberate aurora spotting trips that's always put me off. I'm more tempted just to move somewhere decently north to enjoy the various benefits of dark skies, quiet airwaves (I'm also a fan of obscure wireless hobbies, some of which also include auroras) and decent scenery than to spend hard earned salary and accrued holiday time on the off-chance.
I hadn't realised that the auroral oval cut through Hudson's Bay. 50 percent of flights at solar maximum sounds like acceptable odds - although what are they like at the moment? Did I get properly lucky?
Your description of the view from the flight deck is all too marvelous. I love flying, but have never wanted to do it for a living - however, I now realise I ignored the fringe benefits!
R
I hadn't realised that the auroral oval cut through Hudson's Bay. 50 percent of flights at solar maximum sounds like acceptable odds - although what are they like at the moment? Did I get properly lucky?
Your description of the view from the flight deck is all too marvelous. I love flying, but have never wanted to do it for a living - however, I now realise I ignored the fringe benefits!
R
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 6,726
Likes: 103
From: The Winchester
Not sure how lucky you were the other night since I've got no current "stats" - For various reasons I've not been a regular on flights over Hudson's Bay for a year or so. Having said that towards the back end of the last cycle ( 2 -3 years ago) whilst the very active displays such as you saw were noticably less frequent than at Max, (perhaps 15-20% of flights) you would still catch some sort of display, often just what is known as a "Quiet Arc", on a fair few occasions.
FWIW one of the World's most prolific amateur Aurora observers lives in North Dakota - he's far enough North to be adjacnet to the Auroral Oval and he reckons he gets a higher proportion of cloudless nights than the observers in Scandanavia.
FWIW one of the World's most prolific amateur Aurora observers lives in North Dakota - he's far enough North to be adjacnet to the Auroral Oval and he reckons he gets a higher proportion of cloudless nights than the observers in Scandanavia.
