# Night flights: what you can see, including the northern lights

> You can see the aurora from a plane on the right route, on an active night, from the side facing the pole. Which routes, which window, and city lights.

By Derek Johnson. Updated Nov 7, 2026. Source: https://skycapapp.com/articles/window/night-flights-what-you-can-see/

Yes, you can see the northern lights from a plane, and a plane has real advantages over the ground: you're above most clouds and far from streetlights. You need a route that goes far enough north in magnetic terms, a dark sky, an active night, and a seat on the side facing the pole. Flying from North America to Europe overnight, that's usually the left side.

The rest of a night flight is worth staying awake for too, if the shade is up and the cabin's dark.

## Your route's magnetic latitude matters most

The aurora follows the magnetic pole, which sits over northern Canada, so distance from that pole counts for more than geographic latitude. NOAA's rule of thumb puts the southern edge of the auroral oval at about 66° geomagnetic latitude on a quiet night, moving about 2° toward the equator for each point on the 0-to-9 Kp scale of geomagnetic activity. The oval can also be seen from hundreds of miles south of it.

I worked out the highest geomagnetic latitude on the great circle for some common routes, using the pole's 2025 position:

| Route | Peak geomagnetic latitude | Kp where the oval's edge reaches it |
|---|---|---|
| New York to Paris | 59° | About 3 to 4 |
| New York to London | 60° | About 3 |
| Chicago to London | 64° | About 1 |
| Denver to London | 68° | Inside the oval's zone |
| New York to Reykjavik | 69° | Inside the oval's zone |
| Los Angeles to London | 71° | Inside the oval's zone |
| Seattle to London | 77° | Often poleward of the oval |

A surprise in that table is how much North America helps. London and Seattle are both at about 53° geomagnetic, even though London is about 4° farther north on a globe. At the same latitude, you're magnetically much farther north over Canada than over Europe.

For comparison, New York to San Francisco peaks near 51°, so a domestic flight needs a big geomagnetic storm.

## Which window

Over most of these routes the aurora is to your north, which is on your left going east and your right going west.

The high routes break that rule. Seattle to London reaches about 77° geomagnetic, well poleward of the oval on an ordinary night, so the aurora may be overhead or even to the south, on your right. If you're on one of those routes, check both sides if you can.

Look north, low on the horizon. From 35,000 feet that horizon is about 230 miles away, which on a route near the edge can be the difference.

## Darkness is the part people forget

NOAA says the best aurora tends to come within an hour or two of midnight, about 10 PM to 2 AM local time, and that activity peaks around the equinoxes. Summer at high latitudes rarely works, because it doesn't get dark. In my numbers for a Seattle to London flight leaving in the evening on June 21, the sun barely reaches the horizon at any point.

Overnight eastbound flights suit this well. For a New York to London flight leaving at 9 PM on January 7, 2027, a date picked because it's close to a new moon, I get peak geomagnetic latitude about three hours in, at around 2 AM local solar time, with the sun far below the horizon and no moon up.

The westbound daytime flights back from Europe mostly don't work. A 4 PM departure from London in January stays in dusk-level twilight for much of the crossing, because the plane is keeping pace with the sunset.

Moonlight dims the aurora's look. Full moons this winter fall around November 24, December 24, January 22 and February 20. New moons are around December 8, January 7 and February 6. Those dates come from the same calculation.

The Kp forecast is on NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center site. A high number is a reason to stay awake, with no promise attached.

## What the aurora actually looks like from a seat

Dim, usually. A camera sees more green than your eyes will. Expect a pale band or arc at first, and let your eyes adjust for several minutes away from the seatback screen. Cabin reflections do the most harm: turn your phone over, lean close to the window, and hold a jacket or blanket around your head and the pane.

A clue that it's aurora and not cloud: it may move slowly, and stars show through it.

## Cities and what lies between them

City lights are the sure thing on a night flight. Western cities built on a grid look like a printed circuit, with straight bright lines running to the edge of town and then stopping. Older eastern cities look more like a spill. From altitude you can often see the interstates between towns as dotted lines of traffic.

Two sights are worth looking for because they don't look like towns. North Dakota's Bakken oil region shows up as scattered specks in otherwise dark country. NASA found that most of those specks are lights on drilling equipment and temporary housing, and a few are gas flares. Minneapolis to Seattle passes about 100 miles south of Williston on the great circle, so look right. Texas's Permian Basin is the other, around Midland: a Houston to Los Angeles flight passes close on the right, and Dallas to El Paso close on the left.

In winter a full moon rides high around midnight, too high to see from a side window, and it lights cloud tops well enough to show their shapes. That's a sight of its own, and I wouldn't turn it down.

## Where the numbers stop

The geomagnetic numbers use a simple tilted-dipole model of Earth's field, and the oval changes shape through the night and during storms. Routes are great circles, and the North Atlantic tracks move every day, as [why your flight path curves](/articles/window/why-flight-paths-curve/) explains. I can't predict clouds above you, a cabin that keeps its lights up, or the person in 14C who wants the shade down. For the ride on the same crossing, there's [how to read a turbulence forecast](/articles/ride/how-to-read-a-turbulence-forecast/). For dusk on the way, [the sunset article](/articles/window/which-side-for-sunset/) has the side.

> For your flight, Skycap marks where the moon should be and which cities' lights you should pass, window by window. It doesn't forecast the aurora. [See the window guide](/app/features/#air)

## Sources

- [NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, Tips on Viewing the Aurora](https://www.spaceweather.gov/content/tips-viewing-aurora)
- [NASA Earth Observatory, Gas Drilling, North Dakota](https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/gas-drilling-north-dakota-79810)
- [NASA, Night-light imagery tracks US energy transition](https://science.nasa.gov/earth/human-dimensions/earth-at-night/nasa-night-light-imagery-tracks-us-energy-transition-global-volatility/)