Omega Holidays Northern Lights Flight
Gatwick Airport (LGW), March 12th 2007
Flight Report
The Northern Lights Flight from Gatwick Airport on the 12th of March 2007, began with an
hour long presentation in the Sofitel Hotel Gatwick broken into two parts presented by myself
(Pete Lawrence) and Nigel Bradbury.
The first part covered the logistics of the flight and some navigational guides
to help passengers identify the main constellation shapes
from the plane windows. The second part of the presentation concentrated on the
aurora; what it is, where it comes from and what the passengers could expect to
see that night.
Despite a low sunspot count (virtually zero) predictions were positive for the display
as the Earth was passing through an enhanced region of the solar wind caused by
a coronal hole on the Sun pushing material in our direction.
Following the preentation, a short walk to the airport terminal, a pass
through security and then we were ready for the flight itself.
Auroral Activity
The predicted activity levels were low to medium but there was a little uncertainty in the
arrival time of the enhanced stream.
Forty minutes into the flight, the aircraft cabin was plunged into darkness and
everyone was allowed time to dark adapt. As we flew north, a rather faint glow in the
north became visible and a long exposure camera shot confirmed this to be green indicating
that it was the auroral oval. Tonight's display was rather fainter
than had been expected, the auroral arc glowing with a faint greenish tint with no major
structural activity sighted.
Photographic Results
The faint aurora from the 12th proved rather difficult to photograph. Exposures of
many seconds unfortunately showed little in the way of recorded structure.
Photographing the lights from a plane isn't the easiest task in the world. The lights
normally require an extended exposure of several seconds to record properly. During
this time the plane or the photographer is prone to move. To keep the exposure
times as short as possible, the camera is set to a high sensitivity (ISO) setting
which inevitably introduces noise (the grainy appearance of the images).
The results obtained do show the green featureless auroral band quite well but the plane
movement was difficult to deal with on this particular night as you can see from
the irregular star trails that were recorded. Note that the window frame in the first
test shot (which doesn't show the aurora) is still. This indicates that the camera
was held rigid with respect to the plane and it's the plane's motion that has caused
the stars to wobble and trail (not the photographer!).
The last shot shows the inside of the cabin post our dark flight.
Additional Links
Omega Holidays plc
Space weather forecasts and related information
NLF Presenter Paul Money's website
NLF Presenter Ian Sharp's website
Auroral activity from the Univerity of Lancaster
Auroral oval plots
Auroral photographs taken from Selsey on the UK's south coast
When's the Sky at Night next on?
For information on what's visible in the night sky every month (and much more)...
Pete Lawrence