About us
Making the aurora make sense
A location-specific aurora forecast for everywhere that matters - built on real data, explained in plain language.
Why we built it
Aurora forecasting that actually tells you something
Most aurora tools give you a global Kp number and leave you to guess whether that means anything for where you live. Aurora Tonight translates that number into a location-specific answer - tonight, for your town.
I've had an interest in space for a long time - the kind that starts with a telescope at age twelve and never quite goes away. During the current solar maximum, aurora sightings started showing up everywhere: social media, news sites, group chats. People who had never paid attention to space weather were suddenly looking north from their gardens.
I wanted to know whether it was worth going out on a given night from where I live. The tools I found were either too technical for casual use, too US-focused, or just outdated. So I built one that isn't.
We watch the Sun
NASA's DONKI database tracks coronal mass ejections and solar flares the moment they're detected. We pull that feed every 30 minutes so nothing slips through.
We measure the wind
NOAA's DSCOVR satellite sits at the L1 Lagrange point, one million miles sunward. Its real-time solar wind readings give us ~15–45 minutes of warning before particles hit Earth.
We localise it for you
NOAA's Kp index tells us how strong the storm is. We combine that with your latitude and live cloud cover from Open-Meteo to give you a simple, honest answer for your location tonight.
NASA DONKI
Solar event database tracking CMEs, flares, and geomagnetic storms as they happen, direct from NASA's Space Weather Database of Notifications, Knowledge, Information.
NOAA SWPC
Real-time solar wind data from the DSCOVR satellite and the official Kp geomagnetic index - the backbone of every aurora forecast on this site.
Open-Meteo
Location-specific cloud cover forecasts so we can tell you not just whether there's aurora activity, but whether you'll actually be able to see it from where you are.
Honest, never hyped
We won't tell you there's a chance of aurora when there probably isn't. A quiet night is a quiet night.
For everywhere
400+ locations across the northern and southern hemisphere. Not just Iceland and Norway - everywhere the lights can reach.
Clear over clever
The data is complex. The answers don't have to be. We explain what Kp means, what Bz means, and what to actually do with the numbers.
Shaped by feedback
Every new location, every clarification, every feature has come from someone asking. If something's missing, say so.
Meet the developer
Sean Barraclough - Web developer, Dorset, UK
I built Aurora Tonight because the tools I found were either too technical, too US-focused, or just outdated. My background is in web development, not space science - but that means I care deeply about building things that actually work for real people.
Aurora Tonight is free to use. Some pages include affiliate links to tour operators and accommodation. Neither affiliate links nor advertising influence the forecast data or editorial content.
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