# Helio: Sun & Aurora — Space weather for your sky

> Space weather for your sky (iPhone/iPad app by Dominic Critchlow.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/helio-sun-and-aurora/id6787810359 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Dominic Critchlow](https://appshunter.io/developer/1895488267)
- Category: Weather, Reference
- Price: Free
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 26.0 · 4 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-07-09
- Data updated: 2026-07-17
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/helio-sun-and-aurora/id6787810359/reviews.md

## What is Helio?

Helio is a weather app for the sun. One glance tells you what our star is doing right now, whether it matters for your sky, and what is coming next.

The home screen opens on the actual sun: live imagery from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, with the story underneath. A condition word, one honest sentence, and the numbers that back it up: Kp, solar wind, Bz. Swipe left and the sun becomes the Earth, then the moon. Every world gets the same treatment: a live portrait up top, honest readings below.

THREE WORLDS
• The sun: live solar imagery, current conditions, flares, sunspots, and the solar wind
• The Earth: your planet live from geostationary orbit, the magnetic shield, the ISS, recent earthquakes, and the CO2 record
• The moon: tonight's phase drawn from real ephemeris math, distance and libration, and every eclipse through 2030
• A system map ties it together: ISS, the geostationary ring, the moon, the L1 monitors, and the sun, each at its true position right now

RIGHT NOW
• Live solar imagery as the backdrop, refreshed on NASA's cadence
• Current conditions composed from NOAA data: geomagnetic activity, solar wind, flares, radiation
• Alert cards when NOAA issues watches and warnings, rewritten in plain English

YOUR SKY
• Aurora outlook for where you are: local darkness, moonlight, and the OVATION aurora map with a viewline and your dot
• Your moonrise and moonset, moonlight washout, and the spring or neap tide from the real sun and moon geometry
• CME arrivals from NASA's DONKI model, so you know when a storm is due
• No location? No problem. Deny the prompt and Helio is a complete planetary observatory

LEARN AS YOU GO
• Every number teaches itself: tap any card for a plain-English detail screen with diagrams
• The Kp ladder, Bz explained, flare classes, the NOAA R/S/G scales, and a glossary
• Sun and Earth geometry made visual: day and night globe, orbit view, aurora season
• A 27-day outlook and the shape of the whole solar cycle

BUILT LIKE A WEATHER APP
• Charts you can scrub, a pixel sun and a pixel moon with tappable features, haptics on real events
• Honest offline behavior: last-good data with a clear timestamp, never a fake reading
• Designed for iPhone and iPad, with full VoiceOver and Dynamic Type support

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Helio has no servers and collects no data. It reads public government feeds directly. Your location is used on your device only and never leaves it. No accounts, no analytics, no ads, no third-party SDKs.

Data: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, NASA (SDO, DONKI, SVS), NOAA and partner geostationary weather satellites, USGS, and the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Free. Built for iPhone and iPad.


## Version history (last 2 releases)

### 1.1 — 2026-07-13

Helio 1.1: two new worlds.

THE EARTH
Swipe left for your planet, live from geostationary orbit: the latest full-disk view from the weather satellite nearest you, the state of the magnetic shield, the ISS, recent earthquakes, and the CO2 record at Mauna Loa.

THE MOON
Swipe again for tonight's moon: the real phase and terminator drawn from ephemeris math, distance and libration, every eclipse through 2030, and your moonrise, moonlight, and tide.

THE SYSTEM MAP
A new map button draws the whole neighborhood: ISS, the geostationary ring, the moon, the L1 monitors, and the sun, each spacecraft at its true position right now, with a legend of the fleet feeding the app.

Also: a glass body bar for switching worlds, a more coherent home scroll ordered by time horizon, and new detail screens for the 27-day forecast and the CO2 record.

### 1.0 — 2026-07-09

No release notes.

## More apps by Dominic Critchlow

- [Pinned: Save Your Places](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pinned-save-your-places/id6768069856)

All apps by Dominic Critchlow: https://appshunter.io/developer/1895488267

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-07-17.*