AURORA VIEWPOINT is designed as an aid to viewing and filming AURORA, and is based on human observations in Arctic Norway over a 5 year period comparing real experience with scientific data. The main aims are to provide timely alerts, increasing the accuracy and possibility of observing strong Northern Light displays at a given location. It does not take into account weather, time of day or interference from light pollution or the Moon. It is up to the individual to ensure these factors do not unduly influence the optimum conditions. See further information below on achieving the optimum conditions. Viewpoint is presented as a simple interface for viewing in the field. Eventually we intend to port this to a smartphone APP with push alerts and more advanced features.
Successful AURORA viewing and photography requires clear, dark skies at your chosen location. Interference from light pollution or the moon doesn't always mean you won't see good AURORA, it may just be less vivid and reduce the intensity of the experience.
In our experience the best time for viewing AURORA is between 19:00 and 01:00 local time. This software has been optimised for this time period, therefore accuracy may decrease the further away from these times it is used. It is still possible to view good activity outside these times in periods of unusually strong activity, and the data will still have some relevance in these circumstances.
It is important to enter the Latitude of the location where you want to observe AURORA. Although we have only tested this software in Scandinavia, it should also work equally as well anywhere in the world for either hemisphere poleward of 50° Latitude.
The data used to predict the arrival of AURORA is sourced from the **ACE Satellite. The ACE satellite sits in orbit between the Sun and the Earth, approximately 1.5 million KM from the latter. The specially designed formula used by AURORA VIEWPOINT combines the IMF (Bz) value, SWS (Solar Wind Speed), Proton Density (per CC) and Strength of the IMF (Bt) to calculate and arrive at a forecast of how strong (or weak) these elements will generate AURORAL activity when they impact Earth's upper atmosphere above the latitude chosen by you. Using the velocity of the SWS the ETA or impact can be predicted. This can vary from just a few minutes to over an hour depending on speed. This allows photographers to be well prepared in time for the arrival of AURORA.
The OUTLOOK value is expressed as either LOW, GOOD or HIGH, and is the predicted possibility of an AURORAL display at the indicated time and latitude. It is not an indication of how strong the AURORA will be. Please refer LUMINANCE below for this information.
The Luminance* value is a prediction of the expected visual strength of the AURORA as it should appear to the human eye or long exposure camera. It is expressed as a value in a scale ranging from 0% (not visible) to 100% (similar to light emitted from a full moon) as follows:
| 0-22% | Indiscernible |
| 23-33% | Becomes faintly visible to the human eye, and by camera with long exposure 0:30sec to 0:10sec |
| 34-66% | Visible to the human eye, and by camera with exposure as short as 0:10sec to 0:05sec |
| >66% | Easily visible to the human eye, and by camera with exposure as short as 0:01sec or less. Video is also a possibility with a fast lens, high ISO and a low light sensitive camera sensor. |
The MAGNITUDE value is a prediction of how ubiquitous the AURORA will appear within the 360 horizon, and is expressed as a value from 0 to 10 (from a narrow band to almost total sky coverage).
AURORA VIEWPOINT receives and analyses the data from the ACE Satellite every 60 seconds. The Viewpoint page automatically updates every 60 seconds to reflect the new forecast. Occasionally, due to technical reasons ACE data will be briefly unavailable in which case the last known good data set is re-used until new data is received and forecasts are resumed.
* guide only, accuracy will be greatly influenced by conditions and photographic experience and equipment used. Some experimentation may be required.
** data source:http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/