Jet WindowWindow seat by route · IAH to DXB
Houston to Dubai: which side of the plane?
Sun side turns with season and hour.
The sun is on the left on 5 and the right on 3 of the 8 daylight departures we modeled, so the season and the hour decide it. Find yours in the table.
The sun, by departure time
Where the light will be.
Departure times are local to Houston. About 15 h 30 min in the air over 7,087 nautical miles.
| Leaving at | Winter (mid-December) | Summer (mid-June) |
|---|---|---|
| 7 a.m. | Right · sunset about 5.5 hours in | Left · sunset about 9.5 hours in |
| Noon | Left · sunset about 3.5 hours in | Left · sun on this side |
| 5 p.m. | Left · sunset 25 minutes in | Left · sunset about 4 hours in |
| 10 p.m. | Right · sunset about 10.5 hours in | Right · sunset about 13.5 hours in |
On a dark crossing, the left side faces north. If there is an aurora that night, that is where it will be. Jet Window checks the aurora forecast for your actual flight.
Out of the window
What you can look for.
A city of towers on the edge of the Arabian Gulf, with the desert at its back.
Along the way
- Chicago along the lakefront, the grid running inland on the left
- The Great Lakes, big enough to have a horizon of their own below you, so either side, in daylight
- The Caucasus range between the Black Sea and the Caspian below you, so either side, in daylight
- The Caspian Sea, the largest inland water on earth on the left, in daylight
- The Norwegian fjords cut deep into the coast below you, so either side, in daylight
- The Greenland ice sheet, white to the horizon in every direction on the left, in daylight
- Iceland, glaciers and black lava fields below you, so either side, in daylight
Arriving in Dubai
Along the coast the Palm Jumeirah fans into the Gulf and the needle of the Burj Khalifa stands over the city, haze permitting; inland it is open desert.
How this was worked out
The same engine as the app.
These answers come from the model Jet Window uses on your phone: the sun's position from the cabin's own horizon at cruise, sampled along the great-circle path, with the landmark and airport notes the app shows. This page has to assume a departure time and a flight time, and a real flight bends with winds, airways and the runway in use. Cloud is not modeled.
In the app, Jet Window works it out for your actual flight, at its real departure time, and tells you when to look.
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