Comparison

Backyard Weather vs Aurora Tracker (Scientific)

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Backyard Weather

Monitor personal weather stations, aviation weather, and coastal conditions. View current readings, historical charts for up to 11 metrics, and customize units. Offers widgets and a watch app for convenient access to weather data.

Highlights
  • Personal weather station monitoring
  • Aviation weather (METAR)
  • Coastal conditions (NOAA tides)
  • Current conditions and historical charts
  • Customizable units and display
  • Widgets and watch app support
Features
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**Personal Weather Station & Aviation Weather** Connect a PWS via Weather Underground, monitor aviation weather from any METAR airport, or track tides and coastal conditions from NOAA CO-OPS stations. **Three station types** • PWS — personal weather stations via Weather Underground • METAR — airport observations, updated every few minutes at most US airports • NOAA — tide gauges and coastal stations **Current conditions** Live readings with charts underneath, plus the record high, record low and average for today's date from your station's full archive. Up to 12 metrics depending on station type: temperature, feels like, humidity, wind, dew point, pressure, precipitation, UV, solar radiation, visibility, water temperature, and water level/tide. **Rich history charts** 1-day and 7-day charts you can drag to read exact values, times and wind direction. US airport stations fill in between the hourly reports, so today's line is a curve rather than 24 steps. **Alerts** Get notified when your station crosses a value you choose — a freeze, a gust, an inch of rain — or when it stops reporting altogether. Pressure drops, temperature swings and wind shifts are built in as ready-made rules. **Customisable units & display** 12- or 24-hour time, metric or imperial, and precision options for every number. **Color themes** Nine palettes for your charts and calendars. Preview any of them across every metric before you decide. **Widgets (Supporter)** Graph widgets for any metric over 1 or 7 days, a single-metric widget for one big number, a year-at-a-glance calendar, long-range history charts, a records widget, and Lock Screen complications. **Watch app (Supporter)** Temperature, feels like, humidity, wind, pressure and precipitation as watch complications, with every current metric and its graph in the app itself. **History & Records (Supporter)** Daily detail for any year your station has recorded — airports often reach back decades — plus all-time records, a record high and low for every calendar day, and yearly trends that overlay up to ten years on one chart. Free includes current conditions, 1-day and 7-day charts, one month of history, one alert per station, and three colour themes. Note: a Weather Underground API key is required for PWS stations. METAR and NOAA stations are free and need no API key. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Aurora Tracker (Scientific)

Features
Read full description

Aurora Tracker is a real-time space weather monitoring station for aurora hunters. It combines data from NASA, NOAA, and ground-based observatories into one interface designed for making go/no-go decisions about aurora viewing. REAL-TIME AURORA PROBABILITY A 72-hour probability forecast that combines the OVATION auroral model, live solar wind measurements from the DSCOVR satellite at L1, cloud cover predictions, and your exact latitude. Shows your best viewing window — the exact hours with the highest chance of seeing aurora at your location. SOLAR WIND MONITORING Live data from the DSCOVR satellite, 1.5 million km from Earth: • IMF Bz — the single most important aurora trigger (southward = aurora) • Solar wind speed — faster wind = stronger geomagnetic response • Proton density — higher density amplifies storm effects • IMF Bt — total interplanetary magnetic field strength All measurements include ENLIL model overlays showing predicted solar wind arrival. GEOMAGNETIC INDICES • Kp Index — 3-day planetary geomagnetic forecast from NOAA SWPC • Dst Index — real-time ring current strength from Kyoto WDC • GOES Magnetometer — geostationary orbit field measurements • Ground magnetometers — nearest station to your location SMART AURORA HUNT MODE Set your departure time and maximum driving range. The app generates a candidate grid, calculates real driving times via OSRM, fetches cloud cover forecasts at your arrival time for each direction, and ranks the top 5 viewing spots on a map with route lines. Each spot shows viewing score, drive time, cloud forecast, and a Navigate button for turn-by-turn directions. OVATION AURORA MAP Real-time OVATION Prime aurora oval heatmap overlaid on a dark map with cloud cover tiles. Tap anywhere to set your location and check conditions for that spot. 26 LIVE AURORA WEBCAMS All-sky cameras and horizon views from Svalbard (78°N) to New Zealand (45°S), sorted by latitude. Images auto-refresh every 30 seconds. See if aurora is visible at other locations before heading out yourself. SPACE WEATHER DEEP DIVE • 3-day storm probability forecasts (high and mid latitude) • Predicted K values by 3-hour block • NASA DONKI events — CMEs, solar flares, geomagnetic storms • NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center written forecast • 27-day solar rotation outlook YOUR LOCATION, YOUR CONDITIONS • Cloud cover forecast — total, low cloud, and precipitation probability • Darkness windows — astronomical twilight times for tonight • Moon phase and illumination — bright moons wash out faint aurora • Coordinates, timezone, and geomagnetic latitude Data sources: NOAA SWPC, NASA DSCOVR, OVATION Prime, WSA-ENLIL, Kyoto WDC, GOES Magnetometer, USGS Ground Magnetometers, Open-Meteo, NASA DONKI.

Screenshots

Backyard Weather4 screens
Aurora Tracker (Scientific)3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Aurora Tracker (Scientific) at none against Backyard Weather's 1. Aurora Tracker (Scientific) also leads on iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.6). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Backyard Weather sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $14.99 per year. Aurora Tracker (Scientific) asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Backyard Weather versus Aurora Tracker (Scientific): the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBackyard WeatherAurora Tracker (Scientific)
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.614.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB31 MB
Age rating+44+
DeveloperSamuel AlbrechtJansen Teng Weng Nang

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Backyard Weather

Subscriptions1
  • Backyard Weather Pro1 Month trial$14.991 Year
None

Aurora Tracker (Scientific)

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Backyard Weather free?
Backyard Weather is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Aurora Tracker (Scientific) free?
Aurora Tracker (Scientific) is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Backyard Weather or Aurora Tracker (Scientific) have ads?
Neither Backyard Weather nor Aurora Tracker (Scientific) shows ads.

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