3 February 2017 Aurora Over The Wing!

Mind playing tricks?

As my plane began to decrease in altitude, a sign that we were getting close to the airport, I eagerly scanned the night sky for the lights of Fairbanks. As I looked over the wing I saw a long cloud, at least it looked like a cloud, just over the the starboard wing. Was my mind playing tricks, or was it wishful thinking? Was there a little green sheen to the cloud? Could it be the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights? Maybe. And then a few minutes later it was definite as the Aurora became a spectacular show of varying shades of greens, reds and oranges, creating smoke like wisps and spectacular shimmering curtains against the black night sky. I imagined the airplane listing like a ship about to capsize when everyone on board rushes to one side. In this case people weren’t rushing to the life rafts, but instead they wanted a better view of natures amazing light show on my side of the plane.

As you can see, I did take a photo with my phone but unfortunately you can only see a faint smudge of green agains a black sky.

Aurora sort of seen (look for the green smudge left of center!) flying into Fairbanks Alaska. February 3rd, 2017. Photo by Lisa Seff.

To give you a better idea of what the aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, actually looks like, here's a photo from my PolarTREC aurora experience in 2012 and an amazing aurora photo featuring Bill Schmoker on the USCGC Healy!

Aurora North of Fairbanks with Lisa Seff and PolarTREC 2012 Orientation Teachers. Photo by Tim Spuck (PolarTREC 2012), Courtesy of ARCUS Bill Schmoker poses in front on a display of aurora aboard the USCGC Healy in the north Chukchi Sea. Photo by Brandon Iams, Courtesy of Bill Schmoker (PolarTREC 2015), Courtesy of ARCUS