Omega Holidays Northern Lights Flight
Birmingham International Airport (BMA), March 16th 2007
Flight Report
The Northern Lights Flight from Birmingham International Airport on the 16th of March 2007, began with an
hour long presentation in the Holiday Inn, Solihull 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 sunspot count of 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. This particular stream
of charged particles had been with us all week.
Following the presentation, 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 Monarch.
The flight commentary was supposed to have been delivered by Nigel and myself on this
flight. Unfortunately, Nigel's voice disappeared shortly after arriving on board.
The third astronomer - Paul Money, kindly stepped in an picked up the reigns.
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.
After approximately forty minutes of flight time, the aircraft cabin was
plunged into a good darkness, allowing everyone time to dark adapt. Initially,
as we flew north, there was little sign of the aurora. Long exposure photographs
showed none of the characteristic green that the astronomers use to confirm a
sighting. Then, within a space of approximately 5 minutes between 22:15 and 22:20,
the auroral band suddenly popped into view.
This band was fairly easy to see, arching over the northern horizon. As the flight
progressed, a secondary arc appeared to follow the main band underneath. This was
the sight for much of the flight with the two bands prominent but largely structureless.
Then, as we ran out of time, the display started to become active. The last sight
I got of the display was an area under the left of the main arc which appeared
full of auroral curtains. Unfortunately, we were unable to remain on station to
observe this late structural appearance.
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 the lower secondary
band that appeared later in the flight. Perhaps of most interest are a couple of
parting shots taken looking back across the wing which show that definite structural
activity had started as we turned for the flight home.
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