A pilot has captured stunning in-flight video of the aurora borealis over Canada.
João Mendes, a captain for TAP Air Portugal, was departing San Francisco International Airport earlier this fall and recorded mesmerizing footage of the northern lights from a unique vantage point.
Mendes records time-lapse videos of fights from his cockpit and uploads them to his YouTube channel.
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Specifically, the video shows a time-lapse of 1,900 images taken from the cockpit during his flight from San Fransisco to Lisbon in October.
The video shows off galactic views of the Andromeda Galaxy, Jupiter, and the northern lights to the calming music of Vangelis:
The northern lights (or the aurora borealis) are “dancing waves of light that have captivated people for millennia,” says Space.com. “Energized particles from the Sun slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph), but our planet’s magnetic field protects us from the onslaught.”
As our planet’s magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles, a “dramatic process transforms into a cinematic atmospheric phenomenon that dazzles and fascinates scientists and skywatchers alike.”
Aurora borealis season in Canada typically lasts from early September until the beginning of April in the country’s northernmost areas.
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