Aurora forecast in 3D!
Aurora forecast 3D app
The Aurora Forecast 3D app is released just in time for the dark season. It forecasts the aurora oval up to +0, +1, and +4 hours ahead in time at any location on the planet using a 3D graphical layout.
20 September 2017
Press release from the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS)
We are happy to announce that Professor Fred Sigernes has released his Aurora Forecast 3D app just in time for the dark season. It forecasts the aurora oval up to +0, +1, and +4 hours ahead in time at any location on the planet using a 3D graphical layout.
The Aurora Forecast 3D is a tool to track down where the aurora is located in the sky from any location on the 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 (1 second epochs). The forecasts are +0, +1 and +4 hours ahead in time. These are updated every 15 minutes when the app is active and connected to internet.
An Aurora compass is included that shows where the auroral oval, 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, stars and planets appear in their orbits around the Sun.
Aurora Forecast 3D app features:
– 3D view port of Earth with zoom and rotation enabled.
– Solar illumination of the Earth and the Moon.
– Aurora oval size and location in real time.
– Forecasts based on predicted NOAA-SWPC Kp index.
– Color scaled Kp speedometer.
– Aurora Compass sky view display.
– Editable station / location list.
– Go to animation.
– Right Ascension and Declination of the Moon, Sun and 8 planets.
– Age of the Moon including the phase.
– Includes a 2.4 million star map.
– City light texture.
– Earth, Sun and Moon textures.
– Skyview module to track planets and stars.
– Geomagnetic storm index G1 to G5 alert messages.
Acknowledgement
We wish to thank the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – Space Weather Prediction Centre (SWPC) for allowing us to download the predicted value of the estimated Kp index every 15 minutes.
More information:
The Kjell Henriksen Observatory (UNIS aurora station).
