Read the Now page
What the aurora is doing worldwide, whether it's worth going out where you are tonight, and what's coming in the next days.
The Now page answers two questions: what is the aurora doing right now, and is it worth going outside where you are tonight?
The aurora now
The top of the page describes the aurora around the world in a few words, such as Quiet or Watch the sky, with the current Kp level and a short summary of the solar wind. The map below it, Auroral oval, shows where aurora is likely in the next 30 to 90 minutes, seen from above the North Pole. Your Home is marked on it.
Kp runs from 0 to 9 and measures how disturbed Earth's magnetic field is. The higher it is, the further from the pole the aurora reaches. Kp 5 and above is a geomagnetic storm.
Tonight
The Tonight card is the verdict for your Home. It combines four things: how strong the aurora is forecast to be, cloud, darkness and the Moon.
- The verdict: Go out now, Go out later, Possible or Unlikely.
- Chance score: the same verdict as a number from 0 to 100.
- The main reason: the line below says what's holding it back, such as Cloudy or Too light.
- Best time: the best window in the next 12 hours, and where in the sky to look.
- Next 12 hours: the chance hour by hour. Tap a bar to see that hour's Kp, cloud and darkness.
Times on the card are local to the place.
Your sky
Your sky shows the four numbers behind the verdict, for right now:
- Aurora: the chance of aurora overhead or just poleward of you.
- Cloud: forecast cloud for the next hour, with a check from satellite images.
- Dark: whether the Sun is far enough below the horizon, and until when.
- Needs: the Kp your place usually needs before aurora is seen there.
Tap the i in a card's corner for a short, simple explanation of everything on it.
The days ahead
On a phone, these cards are folded to a one-line summary; tap a title to open it.
- Geomagnetic outlook: the Kp forecast. Daily peak covers 3 days; Chaser adds 3-hourly and 27-day.
- Storm outlook: NOAA's chances of geomagnetic storms over the next three days, solar flares and radiation, and any coronal mass ejections (CMEs) heading for Earth.
- Last 12 weeks and Best nights ahead: how often your place has reached the Kp it needs, and the nights in NOAA's 27-day outlook that should. Only the best nights are listed, not every night.