Aurora Forecast 3D vs AuroraReach

The Aurora Forecast 3D is a tool to track down where the aurora is located in the sky from any location on planet. It renders Earth in 3D with rotation and scaling at your fingertips. You can select locations and make your own ground - station list. The Sun illuminates the globe as it updates in near real-time. The short term forecasts are up to +6 hours, while the long term forecasts are up to 3 days ahead in time. They are updated when the app is active and connected to internet. An Aurora Compass is included that shows where the auroral oval [1,2], the Moon and the Sun are located as you look up at the sky from your location. The phase and age of the Moon is also visualized in the compass. By zooming out in the 3D view port, satellites, stars and planets appear in their orbits [3] around the Sun. FEATURES - 3D view port of Earth. - Solar illumination of the Earth and the Moon. - Aurora oval size and location in real time. - Day side location of the red Cusp. - Forecasts based on predicted Kp index estimated by the Space Weather Prediction Centre (NOAA-SWPC). - Includes a 2.4 million star map [4]. - City light texture [5]. - Earth, Sun and Moon textures [6,7]. - Sky view module to track planets and stars [8]. - 3-day space weather condition forecast as news ticker. - Two-Line Element (TLE) satellite orbit calculations [9]. - Skyview navigation. - 3D Laser Star pointer to identify star signs. - Sounding rocket trajectories. - Sun and Moon daily elevation plots with rise and set time. - Epoch selection for magnetic pole position [10] - Ovals based on polar orbiting satellites data [11] - Target web links added to satellites, stars, planets and position. - All-sky camera links to the Boreal Aurora Camera Constellation (BACC). - Sky color animation [12,13]. - Zhang and Paxton ovals [14]. - Earth shadow calculations in twilight - Youtube demonstration. References [1] Sigernes F., M. Dyrland, P. Brekke, S. Chernouss, D.A. Lorentzen, K. Oksavik, and C.S. Deehr, Two methods to forecast auroral displays, Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (SWSC), Vol. 1, No. 1, A03, DOI:10.1051/swsc/2011003, 2011. [2] Starkov G. V., Mathematical model of the auroral boundaries, Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, 34 (3), 331-336, 1994. [3] P. Schlyter, How to compute planetary positions, http://stjarnhimlen.se/, Stockholm, Sweden. [4] Bridgman, T. and Wright, E., The Tycho Catalog Sky map- Version 2.0, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3572, January 26, 2009. [5] The Visible Earth catalog, http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, April-October, 2012. [6] T. Patterson, Natural Earth III - Texture Maps, http://www.shadedrelief.com, October 1, 2016. [7] Nexus - Planet Textures, http://www.solarsystemscope.com/nexus/, January 4, 2013. [8] Hoffleit, D. and Warren, Jr., W.H., The Bright Star Catalog, 5th Revised Edition (Preliminary Version), Astronomical Data Center, NSSDC/ADC, 1991. [9] Vallado, David A., Paul Crawford, Richard Hujsak, and T.S. Kelso, Revisiting Spacetrack Report #3, AIAA/AAS-2006-6753, https://celestrak.com, 2006. [10] Tsyganenko, N.A., Secular drift of the auroral ovals: How fast do they actually move?, Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 3017-3023, 2019. [11] M. J. Breedveld, Predicting the Auroral Oval Boundaries by Means of Polar Operational Environmental Satellite Particle Precipitation Data, Master thesis, Department of Physics and Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, The Arctic University of Norway, June 2020. [12] Perez, R., J,M. Seals and B. Smith, An all-weather model for sky illuminance distribution, Solar Energy, 1993. [13] Preetham, A.J, P. Shirley and B. Smith, A practical model for daylight Computer Graphics, (SIGGRAPH 99 Proceedings), 91-100, 1999. [14] Zhang Y., and L. J. Paxton, An empirical Kp-dependent global auroral model based on TIMED/GUVI data, J. Atm. Solar-Terr. Phys., 70, 1231-1242, 2008.

AuroraReach app is an aurora tracking, forecasting and alerting app that gives local aurora visibility scores for cities around the world. We take weather conditions like cloud cover, visibility, time of day etc. along with aurora score to generate a score that can help you find the aurora visibility times for a gives city. Along with aurora, weather conditions are also predicted for up to 4 days. We also let users checkin an aurora sighting and alert based on that. We track ~24K cities around the world for aurora activity and weather conditions. It is easy to get started by subscribing to alerts for multiple cities and get alerted on the app for free. Realtime aurora map shows the aurora activity on the map and you can interact with the map to select the cities we are tracking from map and having activity at that time. Aurora Travel destination searching is easier with this and with our city search page you can search by city or country for viewing the city aurora forecast report and subscribe to cities for alerts. You can favorite the cities for quick accesses in the future even if you are not registered with an account. As we track city specific aurora scores, we cover cities under the northern lights (aurora borealis), southern lights (aurora australis) and even cities where aurora hasn't occurred till date. Web page has sighting specific pages to chat on realtime aurora sighting, this will be released soon in the app version too. Enjoy hunting auroras with AuroraReach and find your next aurora destination with this app.