Aurora Borealis sightings
 

Looking at a map of the current activity, it would seems that fligths to Europe from the West Coast or the MidWest would be great opportunities to see some interesting shows.

http://www.sel.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html
Has anyone see good ones lately on a flight to Europe?

Hopefully it'll still be good new years day (SEA-NRT although a lot of the flight might be in daylight) or SEA-LHR in mid. Feb. (thanks to BA for making it affordable). Only time I've seen one was April last year (YVR-LHR). it was quite distant and manifested itself as a glow on the distant horizon. Nothing as good as one up close from what I hear.

[This message has been edited by terenz (edited 12-17-2002).]

Winter flights from SFO/LAX-LHR have done the best for seeing auroras for me -- saw a fabulous one years ago and still remember it, but overall have seen decent auroras three or four times at least. Make sure you sit on the left side window if you want to see the aurora in case there is one.

SFO/LHR SFO/CDG have proven to be decent possibilities.

http://dac3.pfrr.alaska.edu/~pfrr/AURORA/

for forecasts. You can hop around to "custom maps" to pick places on your routing for more specifics.

I caught a glimpse of the Aurora once on a flight from JFK to ARN (Stockholm). I don't think the flight went far enough north to see the really good stuff. What I saw was a line of blue in the night sky. In my grogginess I thought for a minute the sun was rising, but after staring at the blue color for a while I could see it was shifting around in the sky. It was nothing all that special, but I was able to impress my non-frequent-flyer friends with the description. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

thanks for the info...just made a note to change seat for jan lax-lhr trip. i've never seen the aurora..... however i have to state an old joke my daughter told me "does uranus have an aurora?" answer "well, i certainly hope not".

Almost exactly a year ago today, on an evening flight from Providence, Rhode Island, we had quite an incredible show and our pilot (an over 20 year veteran) said it was the most spectacular he had ever seen.

I might be blind, but I actually caught it on a YYZ-YYC trip, flying the northern route (over Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg) instead of the usual southern flight-path (over North Dakota). Quite stunning, I must admit.

YYCollie - you were not blind. I have done that route, plus YEG, YQT and Yellowknife in Winter and seen some amazing displays. Even after living in the north for 2 years, never got tired of them as they were always different.