Matt Melnyk is an airline pilot and avid aurora chaser who regularly enjoys northern lights shows while cruising at 36,000 feet.

"At first I couldn’t see much…but then colors started to show, and I pulled out my camera," the passenger said.

From Earth, auroras — also known as the northern or southern lights according to the hemisphere in which they occur — appear as colorful lights dancing in the sky near the poles. Astronauts on the ...