Northern lights

[garymbuska]

Out of curiosity has any one seen the northern lights in FSX either version ? I have seen them in FS2004 A Century of Flight but so far have not seen them in FSX and i Have been flying all around Canada and Alaska.
If any one has please state where and when and under what conditions
One flight I saw some strange scenery lighting kind of a pinkish tint to every thing I had posted a screen shot on a different forum but you could not see the colors very well so I will not post it here
Thanks

[Tiger1962]

The FSX version is the same as the FS2004 version, a kind of slowly rotating cirrus cloud formation which changes colour. I've seen both over northern Norway at between FL200-FL250. I also saw the real thing (from ground level) in Tromsø, Norway, 2 years ago and the FS versions are nothing like the real thing.

[garymbuska]

Thanks for the reply
The lights I saw in FS2004 were not that bad and looked pretty real. But than nothing beats the real thing.
After reading up on the effect it is possible that what I saw was some of the northern light effect I know that there three files in the Effects folder that are labeled aurora. But I have no idea as to what they actually do or what actually triggers them to be seen

[Tiger1962]

Here are a few tips from way back to maximise your chances of seeing the Aurora Borealis in FS:

Set your ‘Special Effects Detail’ to ‘High’ in your scenery settings
Take the flight I did, ENNK to ENAU and fly higher than 9,000 feet
Take off at night time, try 7:30 onwards and do it in wintertime (February in the Northern Hemisphere)
Have your weather set to All Clear

[garymbuska]

Here are a few tips from way back to maximise your chances of seeing the Aurora Borealis in FS:

Set your ‘Special Effects Detail’ to ‘High’ in your scenery settings
Take the flight I did, ENNK to ENAU and fly higher than 9,000 feet
Take off at night time, try 7:30 onwards and do it in wintertime (February in the Northern Hemisphere)
Have your weather set to All Clear

I think that has been my problem I use Active Sky 2016 so I get the weather that is actually there at that time. The rest of my sliders are all set to max
ENAU does not exist in FSX but I can find other places to fly to
Thanks I will check it out later at work now.

[Nighthawk117]

there is a mission specifically to view northern lights

[Nighthawk117]

Super Cub mission in Iceland (Category: FSX > Missions)
Zip file preview
0.34Mb (396 downloads)
Take off in a Piper Super Cub from Patreksfjordur airport in Iceland. Make an intermediate touch-and-go landing, add fuel at the next landing at Thingeryi and then on to, and land at, Isafjordur airport. Should be nice to have the landing lights! You should briefly see the Northern lights (mostly green) as implemented in FSX. Once at the touch-and-go and again at the approach to the final landing.
Posted Apr 21, 2019 17:43 by Don Olsson

[garymbuska]

Super Cub mission in Iceland (Category: FSX > Missions)
Zip file preview
0.34Mb (396 downloads)
Take off in a Piper Super Cub from Patreksfjordur airport in Iceland. Make an intermediate touch-and-go landing, add fuel at the next landing at Thingeryi and then on to, and land at, Isafjordur airport. Should be nice to have the landing lights! You should briefly see the Northern lights (mostly green) as implemented in FSX. Once at the touch-and-go and again at the approach to the final landing.
Posted Apr 21, 2019 17:43 by Don Olsson

Thanks for the info I had no idea there was a mission available.

[Nighthawk117]

your welcome

[Roypcox]

Great info thank you!!!

[Very_Old_Man]

Hi. I am the developer of the Cub mission showing Northern Lights in FSX,
I was unable to locate Northern lights in free flight in FSX, so found and used effects for them
to make them available in the mission. FYI...

Don

[Very_Old_Man]

Oh...thought I'd mention another Northern Lights mission I made & uploaded. Here is the description:

Mission to see the Northern Lights - Aurora (Category: FSX > Missions)
Zip file preview
2.09Mb (1231 downloads)
For several years I've tried unsuccessfully to locate a place & time in FSX that displays the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis. Yet the effects do exist in FSX. The mission I've uploaded is a simple one with no downloads required & uses the Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Except for having to gain some initial altitude, you should not have any trouble completing this mission.
Posted Sep 7, 2016 10:03 by Donald Olsson

[garymbuska]

So far I have yet to see the northern lights in FSX the closet I have come is seeing scenery that has a strange pinkish tint to it. I have not see scenery like this any where except in places where you could find the northern lights
I had no problems finding them in FS2004 A century of flight and those looked pretty real.
But it was obvious that the ones in the supercub mission were something that was created. Not bad though . I have been flying all around Canada Alaska and Iceland using all kinds of different times of the year and types of weather but so far nothing like what I saw in FS2004.
The files are definitely there I might try changing the parameters to see if I can get them to activate.
I noticed that they have a priority of three I am going to look at other effects that you see more often and see what priority they have. Of course I will copy the original files someplace safe before I do anything. I will let every one know if I am successful.