About Aurorix
Aurorix shows the Kp index, NOAA's aurora model and a cloud forecast for six northern-lights destinations. How it is built, what data it uses and who it is for.
Tämä sivu on kirjoitettu englanniksi.
What Aurorix does
Aurorix answers one question: is it worth going outside to look for aurora tonight, and where? You pick a place. The page shows the planetary Kp index, the aurora chance that NOAA's OVATION model gives for that spot, the cloud forecast and the hours when the sun is low enough for a dark sky.
The site covers Abisko, Tromsø, Rovaniemi, Reykjavik, Yellowknife and Fairbanks. Each place has its own page with the latitude arithmetic, a month-by-month darkness table and notes on where to stand. The interface is available in English, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and German.
Where the numbers come from
Space weather data are downloaded from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. Cloud cover comes from MET Norway's Locationforecast service. Both are stored as dated snapshots and every page shows when its snapshot was fetched. Nothing is estimated by hand and no value is made up when a source is missing: the page says the data are missing instead.
The method page lists each rule Aurorix applies on top of the raw data, such as "dark" meaning the sun is more than 12 degrees below the horizon, and says where each rule comes from.
How it is paid for
Aurorix is free, has no accounts and no paid version. It is funded by a small number of clearly labelled ads that load only after you accept cookies. Ads never appear above the forecast on a phone and never change what the forecast says.
Corrections
If a figure looks wrong, check the source linked on the method page first. Problems with Aurorix itself, or anything else, can be sent to jonathan.holmlidh@gmail.com.