Photo of Northern Lights Captured by Plane Passenger Leaves Internet in Awe

A lucky passenger managed to capture a spectacular view of the northern lights while the rest of the people on the plane were on “sleepy time.”
The mesmerizing northern lights display was captured in a video shared by TikTok user @concorde.aviation. The video, which has amassed 5.9 million views since it was posted on Monday, was taken on a Virgin Atlantic A350 Airbus on August 11, according to hashtags shared with the post.
The footage was captured using the night mode function on an iPhone 15 Pro Max phone while the plane was flying over Greenland and Iceland.
A noted overlaid on the clip says “It’s dark out there, there’s no point in getting a picture.” The footage shows what appears to be a phone camera screen, panning across a plane cabin at night before it pauses at a plane window showing a dark night sky.
A note at the top of the screen says “hold still,” as the camera remains focused on the sky for around five seconds, according to a counter at the bottom of the screen.
The video later shows a still of the wing of the plane with green and purple lights glowing along the horizon.
The northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, are formed from electrons colliding with the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere.
The display showcased in the viral video was captured just a day before the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shared a post on X, formerly Twitter, saying: “G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storming is likely on 13 Aug as CME [coronal mass ejection] passage and influences, which began on 11 Aug, continue.”
A CME is a solar event that sees “a billion tons of plasma ejected from the sun, traveling at a million miles per hour,” explains the NOAA.
“When a CME arrives at Earth, it can produce some of the biggest geomagnetic storms and thus, some of the brightest and most active auroras that extend furthest toward the equator,” says the NOAA.
The viral post comes in a year when northern lights chasers may be able to view the light displays from areas of the world where they’re not normally seen.
Scientists have said 2024 may see the strongest northern lights activity of both the past 20 years and the coming decade because of the high amount of solar activity, which was projected to peak between January and October this year, according to the NOAA.
Stronger solar cycles produce more solar storms with greater intensity, which drives geomagnetic activity.
“If the geomagnetic field is active, then the aurora will be brighter and further from the poles,” the NOAA says.
This means that the aurora borealis may be viewed from lower latitudes than usual this year.
The NOAA explains: “When space weather activity increases and more frequent and larger storms and substorms occur, the aurora extends equatorward. During large events, the aurora can be observed as far south as the U.S., Europe and Asia.”
TikTok users were blown away by the northern lights captured in the viral clip.
User @sparkyyss said “I’d actually scream” and the original poster replied “i would’ve but it was sleepy time or smth [something].”
“That is so pretty,” said user3045026842152 while @hadiyaaspam simply said “WOWOWOWW.”
“Oh my gosh,” noted @user284411015 and @dietcokeisbosh wrote “HOLY MOLY.”
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. The video has not been independently verified.
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