Aurora - 30 Minute Forecast | NOAA (2024)

FAQs

How to read the 30 minute aurora forecast? ›

The two maps show the North and South poles of Earth respectively. The brightness and location of the aurora is typically shown as a green oval centered on Earth's magnetic pole. The green ovals turn red when the aurora is forecasted to be more intense.

Glendale app is the world's most accurate aurora app. It needs to use your location to determine which country & timezone you are in, to provide accurate local times and aurora forecasts. Your device will ask for permission to use your location and you must select 'allow always' when asked.

The aurora forecast can be quite accurate. Technology allows us to monitor the weather forecast and check solar and geomagnetic activity. But at the end of the day, the aurora forecast is only a prediction. We can never fully know when the northern lights will appear.

November through to February offer the darkest skies and longer evenings for maximum sky-gazing. The strongest lights tend to appear between 9pm and 2am, though the best sightings often occur between 11pm and midnight.

The northern lights forecast typically provides information on the expected aurora activity level, often on a scale of 0 to 9 or similar, making it easy to decipher. Higher values indicate stronger geomagnetic storms and a greater likelihood of visible northern lights at lower latitudes.

As a naturally occurring phenomenon, the appearance of the Northern Lights is notoriously difficult to predict any further in advance than about two hours before it happens.

The winter season in the Arctic lasts from late September to late March/ early April. During this time, the Arctic sky is dark enough for the Northern Lights to be visible in the right conditions. The aurora is at its most active around the equinoxes in March and September.

Norway. Witness the captivating Northern Lights dance across the night sky in Norway! Escape city lights and venture into the majestic fjords, mountains, and islands where darkness reigns. Norway boasts some of the darkest skies in Europe, maximizing your chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis in its full glory.

My Aurora Forecast is the best app for seeing the Northern Lights. Built with a sleek dark design, it appeals to both tourists and serious aurora watchers by telling you what you want to know. With this app, you'll be seeing the Northern Lights in no time.

How often does the aurora forecast change? ›

Sunspot activity, and hence auroral activity, tends to peak every 11 years. Sunspots produce solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which create the geomagnetic storms here on Earth that cause the aurora to appear.

NOAA's OVATION Map

It shows a 30-minute aurora forecast for the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The map is updated daily around midnight (UTC). It's a good sign if you see thick areas of light yellow, orange or red on the OVATION Map.

When Is The Best Time To View The Northern Lights? The best chance to catch the lights is typically within two hours of midnight, when geomagnetic activity is in full effect, according to NOAA, though multiple factors can disrupt its visibility.

Find a place where you can see to the north ( or south if you are in the southern hemisphere). Given the right vantage point, say for example on top of a hill in the northern hemisphere with an unobstructed view toward the north, a person can see aurora even when it is 1000 km (600 miles) further north.

If your smartphone has a “Night Mode” feature, that should be good enough to get a more than impressive souvenir shot of the aurora. It likely means a long exposure of between five and 10 seconds, which will look much better if you do three things: Use your primary lens, NOT the super-wide lens (which is inferior).

When the north-south direction of IMF flips south, the magnetic field lines connect to the earth's magnetosphere which faces north. A rift opens that allows the solar wind to pour into our magnetosphere. Bz becomes negative, for example –10nT, which is a good sign that auroras will start to appear.

Kp 2-3: Moderate solar activity. You'll have a good chance of seeing the Northern Lights. This is the most common forecast in Iceland, so head out if you can. Kp 4-6: This indicates that a solar storm is on the way. You can expect to see a great display of the Northern Lights and maybe even a corona!

The KP index is one of the most known data for aurora. Related to the disturbance in the Earth's Magnetic field, it expresses the scale of activity on a level from 0 to 9. The higher it gets, the more chance you will see the Northern Lights far from the center of the Pole.