We’re heading into the Northern Lights season (November-February) and my friends are already posting incredible photos from Alaska and Canada. I was told recently by a tourism official that if I’m interested in seeing the Northern Lights, I should download the free My Aurora Forecast app. It’s supposedly the best app for finding and tracking the Northern Lights (as written in Ian Livingston’s “Poutine and Stargazing at the Jasper Dark Sky Festival“).
The app (currently only available for iOS) is designed for both tourists and serious aurora watchers. It tells you what you want to know: “whether that is exactly how likely you are to see the aurora borealis or details about the solar winds and high-resolution sun imagery.” My Aurora Forecast lets you, as written in the App Store:
- Find the current KP index and how likely you are to see the Northern Lights in the United States or the rest of the world.
- View a list of the best locations to view from right now.
- Map showing how strong the aurora is around the world, based on the SWPC ovation auroral forecast.
- Free push notifications when auroral activity is expected to be high.
- Forecasts for the next hour, several hours and several weeks so you can plan your Northern Lights viewing long in advance (subject to weather conditions).
- Solar wind statistics and sun imagery.
- Tour information so if you’re considering to go to locations such as Iceland, Sweden, Finland or even Alaska or Canada, you’ll be able to find tours that we can recommend to you.
