Space Weather

The Sun runs a weather system the size of the solar system, and Earth lives inside it. Here's the forecast.

The Aurora, Right Now

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NOAA's OVATION model turns live solar-wind measurements into a probability map of where aurora is happening in the next half hour or so. The green glow is the oval — it lives over the poles and bulges toward midnight, and on big storm nights it swells toward the equator. Drag to spin the globe; the dark hemisphere is night, where you'd actually see it.

Probability of visible aurora · brighter green = better odds · red tinge = very high. Hover anywhere for the chance at that spot.

The Kp Index

One number for the whole planet's magnetic mood, updated every three hours from ground magnetometers worldwide. Below 4 is a quiet field; 5 and above is a geomagnetic storm, graded G1 to G5. The outlined bars are NOAA's forecast.

7 days back · 3 days forward

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Planetary Kp
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Range

Hover to read any bar · drag left-to-right across the chart to zoom · double-click or “reset zoom” to return · click a bar to pin its read-out.

The Solar Wind

Measured at the L1 point, a million miles upstream — which gives Earth about 30 to 60 minutes of warning before whatever's coming arrives. Speed jumps and density spikes are how storms announce themselves. Hover either chart and both read the same moment.

Window

Speed · 24 h

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Solar wind speed
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Typical quiet wind blows 300–450 km/s. Above 600, auroras get interesting.

Density · 24 h

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Proton density
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Protons per cubic centimeter. A sudden jump means a shock front just blew past the sensor.

The Wire

NOAA's actual space weather bulletins, as they're issued — the same feed power-grid operators and satellite controllers watch.

Latest bulletins

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    About these instruments

    Solar wind data comes from the DSCOVR and ACE spacecraft at L1. The Kp index is computed from a worldwide network of ground magnetometers. The OVATION aurora model is run by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, the same office that issues every bulletin above. All of it is public data, updated continuously.