Cool Pic from Jet

[n2doc]

Pilot Brian Whittaker photographed the display through the window of an aircraft flying 35,000 feet above Churchill, Canada:

"It was terrific to see a sky full of green Northern Lights and electric-blue noctilucent clouds side by side over the Hudson Bay," says Whittaker. "Eventually, as the sun rose, the auroras faded. For a while, the noctilucent clouds filled the entire sky in their place before they too faded with day break."

For the record, the airplane was 11 km high. The noctilucent clouds were 83 km high. The auroras were ~150 - 200 km high.

http://spaceweather.com

[Enrique]

1. a giant green pepper in the sky

[DemoTex]

2. I once saw a spectacular Aurora over upstate NY .. PLUS something else spectacular!

I was flying Boeing 737-300 on a late night flight from NY La Guardia (LGA) to Buffalo (in 1997). We broke out of clouds at about 15,000 feet on a climb to FL280 (28,000 feet). When we broke out into the clear we immediately saw a blood-red curtain of light - the Aurora - across the northern sky. To the west was a setting crescent moon, with the Hale-Bopp comet sitting just off the lower point!

We made turns so that passengers on both sides of the aircraft could see the spectacle, and then we had the flight attendants come to the flight deck - one at a time - for what was - indeed - The Greatest Show on Earth.

[alfredo]

3. That was a nice thing to do for your passengers.

[Pterodactyl]

4. Cool!