AuroracastUKLive from space, updated every minute
Know when the northern lights are worth going outside for
Auroracast watches the solar wind, the magnetic field and the sky over the UK and Ireland, and tells you when something is happening. Free, no adverts, and built with people who have been chasing the aurora for years.
Activity now
not available
Hp30 index
Field direction
-0.9
Bz, southward is what counts
Solar wind
508
km per second
What you get
Everything here is free
Alerts when it is worth it
A message on your phone or in your inbox when the sky turns active, at a level you choose. Aurora substorm and solar wind alerts are separate switches, so you only get what you asked for.
Set up alerts →Live data, once a minute
Solar wind speed, the magnetic field direction, the Hp30 index and ground magnetometers reading an aurora substorm as it builds. The same numbers the forecasters use, in plain English.
See it live →Where to go tonight
Dark sites near you, scored on cloud at that exact spot, hours of darkness and how much moon is in the way. Save your own field or lay-by and it gets scored too.
Find a dark sky →What people are actually seeing
Sightings and photographs from around the country, on a map, as they come in. It is also how we check whether a forecast was any good.
Browse sightings →The next three days
Where the activity is heading, the nights with the best odds, and the cloud that decides whether any of it matters.
Open the forecast →Start here if it is all new
What the numbers mean, what the aurora actually looks like from the UK and Ireland, and how to photograph it on a phone. Written for somebody who has never seen one.
Start here →The community
Seen by people like you
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Join in
An account is optional
Alerts, live data and forecasts all work without one. An account lets you post what you saw, keep your own dark sky spots, and carry your settings between your phone and your laptop.
Ready when you are
Is tonight worth going out?
Whether it is worth your coat is what the live page is for.