Which side of the plane for the northern lights?
The aurora sits to the north, so the side follows your heading: flying east it is out of the left-hand windows, flying west it is out of the right. On an overnight flight from North America to Europe — the classic aurora crossing — that means the left side, and the best of it comes in the middle of the flight at the highest latitude.
· Airline details checked September 2026
The rule, by direction of travel
Everything follows from one fact: in the northern hemisphere the aurora is north of you. Face the way the aircraft is pointing and put north on the correct hand. Flying east, north is to your left. Flying west, north is to your right. Flying north it is straight ahead over the nose, and flying south you would need to be looking behind you, which is why southbound is the wrong flight for it.
The overnight crossing from North America to Europe is the one people mean. It is eastbound, it is dark for most of the way, and its great circle climbs to high latitude over Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland. Left-hand window, and the aurora oval is off the wingtip rather than a thousand kilometres away.
The return leg is the disappointment. Westbound transatlantic flights are daytime flights, and there is nothing to see in daylight no matter which side you booked.
- Flying east
- Aurora on the left
- Flying west
- Aurora on the right
- Flying north
- Ahead, over the nose
- Flying south
- Behind you — wrong flight
Which flights get high enough north
The aurora forms in an oval around the magnetic north pole, brightest around 65 to 70 degrees of magnetic latitude. When activity is strong the oval widens south and you can catch it from well below that, but the closer your route runs to it the better the odds and the higher it sits in the window.
Routes that do well are the ones bending over the top of the world. A great circle from the eastern United States to Europe passes near 55 to 60 degrees north. Europe to East Asia crosses Siberia. The US west coast to Asia runs up over Alaska. And anything into Iceland, northern Norway or interior Alaska lands inside the oval rather than looking at it.
| Route | Direction | Side to book |
|---|---|---|
| North America → Europe, overnight | Eastbound | Left |
| Europe → North America | Westbound | Right, but usually daylight |
| Europe → East Asia over Siberia | Eastbound | Left |
| US west coast → Asia via Alaska | North then west | Right |
| Anywhere → Iceland or Tromsø | Northbound | Ahead, either side |
The season, and the dark
It needs darkness, and at those latitudes the summer does not have any. The season runs from roughly September to March, and activity is statistically higher around the two equinoxes in September and March than in midwinter — an effect of how the earth’s magnetic field lines up with the solar wind at those times of year.
Cabin conditions matter as much as the route. Give your eyes fifteen to twenty minutes to adapt, kill your reading light, and cup your hands against the glass to block the cabin reflection. Pick a seat ahead of the wing or well behind it, because a strobe and an engine glow will wash out everything.
Set your expectations honestly, too. A faint aurora reads as a pale grey or white arc to the naked eye — human colour vision gives up at low light — and only turns green in a photograph. If you see a grey band that will not behave like a cloud, that is it.
Knowing where north is, at 03:00, offline
The rule gets you the right side at booking. In the seat, the problem is that your heading is not the one on the ticket: a great circle to Europe starts out pointing northeast and ends pointing southeast, and the side that faced north at departure is not the side that faces north five hours later.
SkyDot reads your heading live from GPS, so the direction the aircraft is actually pointing is on screen at any moment, along with your position on the route and how far north you have got. All of it works in Airplane Mode with no connection, which matters at 03:00 over Greenland.
One thing it does not do: forecast the aurora. Nothing on a phone in Airplane Mode can, because that needs live space-weather data from the ground. What SkyDot gives you is where you are, which way you are facing and therefore which windows to watch. Check the forecast before you board, and use the dim-screen setting once you are in the dark so the display does not undo your night vision.
- Heading source
- GPS track, live
- Needs a connection
- No
- Aurora forecast
- No — check before boarding
Questions
Which side of the plane is best for the northern lights?
The left-hand side on an eastbound flight and the right-hand side on a westbound one, because the aurora is to the north. On a northbound flight it is ahead of you over the nose and either side works.
Which side for a flight from the US to Europe?
The left. That crossing is eastbound and overnight, so north is off the left wing and the cabin is dark for most of it. The best stretch is the middle of the flight, over Greenland and Iceland, where the route reaches its highest latitude.
What time of year can you see the aurora from a plane?
Roughly September to March in the northern hemisphere, because you need real darkness and the high-latitude summer has none. Activity is statistically stronger around the September and March equinoxes than in the middle of winter.
Why does the aurora look grey rather than green?
Because human colour vision fails at low light. A faint aurora reads as a pale grey or white arc to the naked eye and only comes out green in a photograph, where the sensor collects light for far longer than your eye does.
Can SkyDot tell me when the aurora will appear?
No. An aurora forecast needs live space-weather data from the ground, and nothing in Airplane Mode can fetch that. SkyDot tells you where you are and which way the aircraft is heading, so you know which windows face north — check the forecast before you board.
How do I know which way is north during the flight?
From your heading. SkyDot reads it live from GPS and shows it offline, which matters because a great circle route turns as it goes — a flight to Europe leaves pointing northeast and arrives pointing southeast, so the side facing north changes across the flight.