Aurora Kp Forecast & Alerts

Aurora Forecast turns the biggest screen in the house into a space weather station - and answers one question honestly: is it worth putting a coat on tonight? Kp alone tells you nothing. The same Kp 5 puts the aurora overhead in Tromsø and below the horizon in Berlin. This app works out the rest, for the place you actually live. LIVE SPACE WEATHER Kp index straight from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, refreshed automatically. Solar wind speed. The Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field - the single factor that decides whether anything happens at all, explained in plain language: Bz south means the door is open. Alongside it, cloud cover, temperature and moonlight from Apple Weather, combined into one viewing score. Your location and time zone are detected automatically. TONIGHT, HOUR BY HOUR The Kp forecast for the coming night, hour by hour, with cloud cover on the same timeline. Cloud Gap Predictor finds the clearest 30- and 60-minute windows of the night and ranks them. If the sky stays shut until morning, it says so - instead of inventing a "best time" and sending you outside for nothing. 3-DAY OUTLOOK Maximum and average Kp for each of the next three days, with the expected peak time and your chance of seeing it from where you are. INTERACTIVE AURORA MAP A MapKit world map showing where the aurora reaches right now. Fourteen known viewing towns light up as the current Kp grows: Kp 2+ for the primary oval, Kp 4+ for the extended zone, Kp 6+ during major storms. Pan and zoom with the remote. ALERTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS On-screen alerts when the Kp index spikes, a geomagnetic storm is underway, the sky clears, or every factor lines up at once. Each one comes with what to do about it: when to go out, which way to face, what to wear, and whether the clouds make it pointless. AURORA SCHOOL Eight lessons that turn the numbers on the other screens into something you understand: the Kp scale, solar wind, the Bz component, why the aurora glows green and occasionally deep red, geomagnetic storms, latitude zones, moon phase, and how to actually watch. Forty "Did you know?" facts along the way, from the 1859 Carrington Event to why cameras see more red than your eyes do. PHOTO MODE Heading out with a camera? The app suggests a starting ISO, aperture and shutter speed for tonight's activity level, shows which way to face for your hemisphere, the current cloud cover and moon impact, and six field-tested tips. Plus a gallery of aurora photography in full 4K, with a note on what each form of the aurora actually is - curtains, arcs, rays - so you know what you are looking at when it appears. MADE FOR APPLE TV Not a phone app stretched to fit. Focus-based navigation tuned for the Siri Remote, a glass interface built for a 4K panel, an animated aurora background, and a Kp badge that pulses when activity is high enough to matter. FREE AND PREMIUM The live conditions screen and settings are free, forever. Tonight, the 3-day outlook, the map, alerts, Aurora School and photo mode open with a single one-time purchase - no subscription, no renewals, nothing to cancel. And it is a universal purchase: one payment covers Apple TV, iPhone and iPad. HONEST DATA Space weather from NOAA SWPC. Cloud cover, temperature and moon phase from Apple Weather. When a source goes quiet, the app says "no data" instead of showing a plausible-looking number - you may be driving an hour into the dark on the strength of it. WHO IT IS FOR Aurora chasers planning a trip north. Photographers who want their exposure worked out before they leave the house. Anyone in Scandinavia, Iceland, Scotland, Canada or Alaska who keeps checking the sky. And anyone who just wants the night sky on the big screen while the coffee brews. Terms: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/