# Look North: Aurora Alerts — Northern Lights & Storm Alerts > Personalized aurora alerts and dark sky location finder. (iPhone/iPad app by H Mitchell Reid.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/look-north-aurora-alerts/id6759497991 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [H Mitchell Reid](https://appshunter.io/developer/1879057804) - Category: Weather, Utilities - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 5.00/5 from 3 App Store ratings · 1 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 26.2 · 40 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-03-10 - Data updated: 2026-09-08 - Monetization: free with in-app purchases - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/look-north-aurora-alerts/id6759497991/reviews.md ## What is Look North? Aurora alerts that actually mean something to YOU. No graphs, no jargon. Just an alert when it's time to go outside. Most aurora apps send generic alerts whether the storm can reach you, the sky is clear, or it's even dark. Look North handles the science and tells you when to go outside, start planning, or relax. PERSONALIZED TO YOU, NOT TO EVERYONE Before sending an alert, Look North checks whether the storm can reach your latitude, whether your sky is clear enough, and whether it is dark. Storm cards also factor in wildfire smoke and haze, moonlight, light pollution, daylight, and local viewing reach. Someone in Kansas gets a different message than someone in Norway during the same storm, because the same event means something different depending on where you're standing. REAL-TIME SUBSTORM DETECTION Look North monitors Earth's magnetic field using geosynchronous satellites and detects magnetic signatures of substorm activity. Substorms can intensify auroral displays and push them farther south. Look North tells you when that activity is underway and how the storm's current reach lines up with your location. EARLY SUBSTORM WATCHES (PRO) Before a substorm begins, magnetic energy can load into Earth's night side. Look North Pro can show an Early Substorm Watch and the probability that similar past loading patterns produced a detected substorm within the next hour. LIVE SIGHTING REPORTS During active events, quickly report what you see. Live reports appear on storm cards. When enough naked-eye reports exist, the card shows whether sightings have reached your latitude, are just north, or remain farther north. NAKED EYE OR CAMERA? During strong storms, Look North can help separate what your eyes might see from what a night-mode photo may catch. If aurora may be too faint for naked-eye color but possible on camera, the app says so. TRACK MULTIPLE STORMS AT ONCE When solar events overlap, Look North tracks them together, sorted by urgency. Each has its own timeline and a morning-after recap. ALERTS THAT FOLLOW YOU Set your Alert Location manually, use your current location, or turn on optional Travel Updates so alerts and sky guidance match where you'll be watching. GO NORTH: FIND YOUR DARK SKY SPOT You got the alert. Now where should you go? Go North searches nearly 30,000 dark sky locations across the US and Canada and ranks them for your conditions. Sites are scored using live clouds, light pollution, sky darkness, drive time, and northern horizon terrain. Choose Nearby, Worth the Drive, or Big Adventure. Forecast mode shows hourly clouds for the overnight viewing window. Drop a pin to score your own spot, or send private feedback about access, safety, views, and light pollution. FOLLOW THE FULL JOURNEY FROM SUN TO SKY A solar flare can be followed by an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, or CME. If it reaches Earth and drives geomagnetic activity, aurora may follow. Look North Pro tracks each stage, giving you hours or days to plan. THE 5-PHASE ALERT SYSTEM (PRO) Phase 1: Solar flare detected; checking for an Earth-directed CME Phase 2: Earth-directed CME confirmed, with a live arrival countdown Phase 3: Geomagnetic storm watch issued before possible arrival Phase 4: The disturbance reaches Earth and conditions are watched in real time Phase 5: Substorm activity detected. Time to look North. WHAT EVERY USER GETS FREE Phase 5 go-outside-now alerts, tuned to your location and sky Severe storm alerts for rare G4+ events Latitude-aware live sighting reports Top-ranked dark sky spot from Go North Home screen and lock screen widgets Live satellite imagery and map overlays Plain-English aurora education Look North Pro is available for $9.99 annually. Free users get real aurora alerts, personalized to their location, at no cost, forever. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ ## Key features - Personalized aurora alerts - Real-time substorm detection - Tracks multiple storms - Dark sky spot finder - Forecast mode - No space weather knowledge needed ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **Subscriptions** | Subscription | Price | Period | | --- | --- | --- | | Look North Pro Monthly | $1.99 | per month | | Look North Pro Annual | $14.99 | per year | ## Recent user reviews (1 of 1) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/look-north-aurora-alerts/id6759497991/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Awesome app! *2026-03-26* What a fantastic use of technology, to make the wonder of experiencing aurora more likely for more people! Had alerts over the weekend & caught some pink skies I would never have known to go look for otherwise. Highly suggest paying for the Pro version to get those notifications in real time too, worth every penny. ## Frequently asked questions about Look North ### Does Look North have ads? No, Look North does not contain advertisements. The app is free to download and use, with optional in-app purchases for advanced features. ### What is the price of Look North Pro? 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. ### How often is Look North updated? 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. ### What devices support Look North? Look North is available on iPhone and iPad devices. It is designed to provide a seamless experience across Apple's mobile platforms. ### What is the age rating for Look North? 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. ### How does Look North personalize aurora alerts? 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. ### Can Look North help me find a viewing spot? 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. ### What makes Look North different from other aurora apps? 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. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.8 — 2026-08-28 (1.8) • Price Drop! ---> I want each and every one of you to get a chance to see the aurora, so Look North Pro is now only $9.99 a year, down from $14.99. Existing subscribers keep their access and move to the lower price at renewal :) • Added the ability to redeem offer codes directly in the app • General bug fixes and UI improvements (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. • 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. ### 1.7.1 — 2026-07-16 (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. ### 1.7 — 2026-07-14 (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. ### 1.6 — 2026-05-03 (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. ### 1.5 — 2026-04-22 (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. --- *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 2026-09-08.*