Two commercial flights, an unexpected twist and a passenger surprise in a unique event

They were mid-flight distractions that many appreciated. Although a bit unusual for commercial airline passengers, at least this happened Two planes When the planes hit this week An unexpected twist To offer unique view to passengers from Aurora Fries.

About It is a natural phenomenon that people all over the world take expensive trips High latitudes can be witnessed. The colorful charged light display occurs when charged particles from the Sun collide with Earth’s magnetic field. NASA

Passengers on the plane 1806 D EasyJet, D Reykjavík and Manchesterand flight 488 From Finnair, from Kusamo to Helsinki, They found the show for the same price as their airfare. Flight tracking websites show that Both planes made small circles in mid-air.

“Thank you to the captain of Finnair flight AY488 from KAO to HEL tonight. An unplanned 360-degree turn In the air for all passengers to experience the magic”, he tweeted. He user @Comey Kirsi Last Sunday.

On Monday, the pilot of EasyJet Flight 1806 also made a circle so passengers could see the colored lights.

Rose knit He was flying to Manchester with his wife, brother and sister-in-law and was able to take pictures out the window. In conversation with cnn, He said he had heard that people on previous flights had seen the Northern Lights, so he kept magazines near the window to block out the plane’s cabin lights in the hope they could see something.

As he described it, the easyJet team was amazing Turned off the lights So everyone could see the Northern Lights. He explained that his team was lucky because they were on the left side of the plane, so they “got a lot of photos before doing the 360.”

“Everyone was like that enthusiastically, and many others have never seen before. We were lucky enough to see it twice on our trip Iceland. Es A wonderful experience”, was added.

For his part, the user @APTGroves He thanked the easyJet pilot who “made a 360-degree turn mid-flight to ensure all passengers could see the incredible northern lights.”

EasyJet was “delighted” to do so, the airline said in a statement CNN. As explainedeThe captain “managed to perform a controlled maneuver to allow the passengers to get a spectacular view from the air of the Northern Lights, one of nature’s greatest spectacles.”

In 2021 New information published A team of physicists from Iowa State University showed this about the aurora borealis “Bright auroras are produced by powerful electromagnetic waves during geomagnetic storms.”

The study shows that these phenomena, also known as waves of Alfvén, They accelerate electrons toward Earth, causing the particles to create the light show we know as the aurora borealis.

“Measurements revealed that this tiny population of electrons is given a ‘resonant acceleration’ by the electric field of the Alfvén wave, much like a surfer catching a wave and continuing to accelerate as they move with the wave,” he said. Greg Howes, Associate Professor at University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy and co-author of the study.

This theory of electrons “surfing” in an electric field was first proposed by a Russian physicist in 1946.Lev Landau, and named Landau mitigation. His theory has now been proven.

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