Receive personalized aurora alerts that tell you exactly when it's worth going outside to see the Northern Lights. It checks your location, sky conditions, and darkness before notifying you, and even suggests nearby dark sky spots.
1.7.1
July 16, 2026
(1.7) Big update for you, it's been a while! • Early Substorm Watches---> Pro users can now see when magnetic energy is loading before aurora activity begins, including a Machine Learning driven substorm onset probability model so you can always be ready for the show. • Real-Time Sighting Reports---> During active aurora events, you can quickly report whether you are seeing aurora right now, and see if anyone at similar latitudes to you has reported a sighting yet. • More Personalized Storm Cards---> Cards now better factor in details from your live location, cloud cover, smoke and haze, moonlight, light pollution, and sunset/moonrise timing, all to provide much more custom and personal local visibility guidance. • Naked Eye or Camera?---> During strong storms, Look North can now help tell you whether aurora is likely to be visible to your eyes, better suited for a night-mode photo, or still too far north. • Smarter Alert Location---> Use your current location, set a manual alert location, or turn on optional Travel Updates so alerts match where you'll actually be watching. • Go North Feedback---> You can now send private feedback about Go North viewing spots to flag access, safety, view, or light-pollution issues. • Science Copy and Reliability Improvements---> Updated solar-wind source language, clearer aurora science explanations, morning-after storm recaps, and other behind-the-scenes fixes. (1.6) • "Did You See It" Improvements--->After an aurora event ends, share your photos and tell us how bright it looked! Your sightings help us improve detection accuracy for everyone. v1.6 adds the ability to tell us when you DIDN't see anything, as well as automatic time and location detection from submitted photos. • Expanded Onboarding Flow--->New users now get a friendly walkthrough of all of the space weather data sources that Look North tracks so that they don't have to! • Shiny new App icon! • Reliability Improvements--->Behind-the-scenes fixes and various bugs squashed. (1.5) • Did You See It?--->After an aurora event ends, share your photos and tell us how bright it looked! Your sightings help us improve detection accuracy for everyone. • Smoother Alerts--->Notifications feel more timely during active storms and clear out cleanly afterward. • Reliability Improvements--->Behind-the-scenes fixes for longer and overlapping storm systems. (1.4) New Feature Alert! Go North, an industry leading smart aurora viewing location finder! • Go North: Find Your Dark Sky Spot--> Search our database of nearly 30,000 dark sky locations, all scored and ranked by real-time cloud cover, light pollution, drive time from your current location, northern horizon openness, and elevation. Three search ranges let you find a quick weeknight spot nearby, a worthy weekend drive, or a big adventure to the darkest skies available for the trip of a lifetime. • Plan Your Trip--> When a storm watch is active, see hourly cloud cover forecasts for specific storm dates. Save your favorite viewing spots in go North as bookmarks for quick access anytime. Plan trips for upcoming storm nights and get reminder notifications the day before and morning of your trip. • Custom Pins--> Long-press anywhere on the map to drop a pin and instantly see the full forecast, sky quality, northern horizon visualization, weather conditions, and driving distance for that exact location in Go North. Save custom pins alongside your other favorite spots. • Moon Phase Context--> Moon phase and illumination are now shown for each viewing date. A bright moon can wash out faint aurora, so you can pick darker nights when possible. Strong storms are still visible even under a full moon.
MoreFollow the full journey from solar flare to aurora!
No, Look North does not contain advertisements. The app is free to download and use, with optional in-app purchases for advanced features.
Look North Pro offers two subscription plans: $1.99 per month or $14.99 per year. These plans unlock additional features for a more enhanced experience.
The app was last updated on March 31, 2026, indicating a commitment to regular maintenance and improvements. Users can expect ongoing support and potential new features.
Look North is available on iPhone and iPad devices. It is designed to provide a seamless experience across Apple's mobile platforms.
Look North has an age rating of 4+. This indicates it is suitable for a wide audience, including younger users interested in weather and astronomy.
Look North checks if the storm is strong enough for your latitude, if your sky is clear, and if it's dark in your location before sending an alert. This ensures notifications are relevant to your specific viewing conditions.
Yes, the 'Go North' feature searches for nearly 30,000 publicly accessible dark sky locations across the US and Canada. It ranks them based on cloud cover, light pollution, darkness, drive time, and terrain.
Unlike other apps that show raw data like Kp index graphs, Look North processes the science behind the scenes. It provides a clear, actionable alert only when it's truly worth going outside to see the aurora.