Korea Trip - Part 1

Flying Over the Arctic

A large portion of our recent flight to Korea took place above the arctic circle at approximately 71 degrees north latitude. The route passed westward along the southern edge of the Arctic Sea over northern Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, before heading south over China towards Seoul. A final westward detour avoided nightmare North Korea before landing at Incheon Airport. Fortunately, I had a window seat on the north side of the plane. During most of the lengthy flight land below was obscured by clouds. Infrequent gaps did, however, reveal unfamiliar scenes. While passing over the upper northwestern side of Hudson Bay I saw this strange desolate terrain below:

Soon after leaving Hudson Bay a nice multi-ringed glory appeared against clouds below as we traveled along the northern shore of the Northwest Territories. First, look at the image with no enhancement.

Check out the enhanced version of the glory below.

I saw several examples of broken sea ice while flying over the East Siberian Sea north of Siberia after we crossed the International Dateline.

Odd shapes were common whenever clouds cleared over Siberia.

A frozen Siberian mountain range was the last terrain visible before clouds completely blocked the view below.

Since the entire trip took place in daylight, there was no chance to see any auroral displays from the plane. A journey closer to the winter solstice would be better for aurora viewing.