Omega Holidays Northern Lights Flight
East Midlands Airport (EMA), March 14th 2007
Flight Report
The Northern Lights Flight from East Midlands Airport on the 14th of March 2007, began with an
hour long presentation in the Castle Donnington Community College broken into two parts presented by
Paul Money 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 drive to the airport terminal, a pass
through security and then we were ready for the flight itself. The carrier on this
occasion was MyTravel.
Auroral Activity
The predicted activity levels were optimistic as the coronal hole that had been delivering
charged particles to us since the start of the week had generated a few auroral displays.
Unfortunately MyTravel's rules prevented us from black taping out the no-smoking signs which
remained on for the whole flight. However, a last minute piece of invention allowed us
to cover these lights with the onboard safety card (and a couple of pieces of tape. The
result was that after approximately forty minutes of flight time, the aircraft cabin was
plunged into a good darkness, allowing everyone time to dark adapt. As we flew north,
a glow in the north became visible and a long exposure camera shot confirmed this to be green indicating
that it was tonight's aurora.
The start of the display was rather featureless with just a green, curved band visible along the
northern horizon. Then, following an unexpected PA announcement from the captain that
went something like "Oh, wow!" the display became active. A beautiful aurora was see
with rays and curtains visible along the length of the arc. Pulsing brightness variations
were also seen.
Tonight we travelled up to around 61 degrees north, a total distance of around 1,400 miles.
Photographic Results
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 auroral band quite well and pick out a number of the lovely
features that presented themselves to us during the flight.
Tonight, longer exposures than normally attempted (up to 30s) were taken
and reveal a reddish tinge to the upper regions of the display. These were not visible
with the naked eye.
Additional Links
Omega Holidays plc
Space weather forecasts and related information
NLF Presenter Pete Lawrence's website
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