Will I See the Northern Lights From My Flight?
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Press play to fly the route and see where the aurora is at each moment.
- Dim your screen and the reading light, and cup your hands against the window: the cabin's reflection hides more than the clouds do.
- Pick the window seat on the recommended side when you check in, as far from the wing as you can.
- Faint aurora looks grey to the eye and green on a phone in night mode: if in doubt, take a photo.
A chance, not a promise: the aurora's zone is placed from the night's activity on a simple model of the Earth's magnetic field, good to a few degrees, and it still needs clear skies and a dark cabin. The flight path is the great circle at an average cruising speed.
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From 11 kilometres up there are no streetlights and no clouds in the way, which makes a night flight one of the best places to see the aurora, if the route goes near it and you are on the right side. Put in a route, a date and a departure time and this works out whether the northern (or southern) lights will be in view, for how long, and which window to book.
How It Works
- Enter the route: any two airports in the world, by code or by city name.
- Set the date and the departure time, in local time at the airport you are leaving from.
- Read the verdict: how likely the aurora is, for how long it is in view, and which side of the cabin to sit on.
- Check the timeline and the globe: the stretches with the aurora in view are marked in green, and play flies the route minute by minute.
What Decides Whether You See It
Four things have to line up:
- Darkness: the sun has to be well below the horizon where the plane is, so winter flights and night departures do best, and a summer flight over the Arctic may never get dark at all.
- Distance from the aurora zone: the lights form a ring around the magnetic pole, which sits closer to Canada than to Siberia, so a flight over the North Atlantic is far nearer to it than one at the same latitude over Asia.
- Activity: on a quiet night the ring is small and far north; in a geomagnetic storm (a high Kp index) it widens and reaches much further south.
- Your side of the plane: south of the ring you look north, and deep inside it you look back south. The tool works out which window that is for your heading.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which side of the plane should I sit on to see the northern lights?
The side facing the magnetic pole, which is the left flying east across the North Atlantic (New York to London, for example) and the right flying west. Routes that pass close to the pole can have it on the other side for part of the way, which is why the tool checks every stretch of the route rather than giving one rule.
Which flights are best for seeing the aurora?
Night flights across the North Atlantic between North America and Europe, flights to and from Iceland, Scandinavia, Alaska and northern Canada, and the long polar routes between North America and Asia. In the southern hemisphere, night flights between Australia or New Zealand and South America or South Africa pass under the southern lights.
How accurate is it?
It is a chance, not a promise. The aurora zone is placed with a standard model of the Earth's magnetic field and the night's Kp index, good to a few degrees, and the real aurora shifts by the hour. It also cannot know about clouds below you or the cabin lights. What it is good at is telling a route that will pass near the aurora in the dark from one that never will.
Where does the aurora forecast come from?
From the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center's planetary Kp index forecast, which covers the next three days in three-hour steps. For dates further ahead the tool assumes a typical night, Kp 3, and says so.
Can you see the aurora from a plane during the day?
No. It is there, but the daylight sky is far brighter. The tool only counts the parts of the flight where the sun is well below the horizon at the plane's position.
Book the right window, and keep your screen dimmed.