Acquiring location…
Aurora Borealis Radar is a free, real-time northern lights forecast that combines NOAA space weather data with local cloud cover and moon illumination to estimate your chance of seeing the aurora tonight from your exact location.
The forecast updates continuously and shows the current planetary Kp index, the IMF Bz component (interplanetary magnetic field southward direction), the OVATION auroral oval probability for your latitude, the solar wind speed in km/s, the cloud cover percentage from OpenWeatherMap, and the moon illumination from astronomical ephemerides.
The visibility verdict is one of: Exceptional Tonight, Good Chances, Possible — Watch Sky, Faint — Camera Only, or Unlikely. A daylight gate suppresses the verdict during civil twilight and brighter conditions when aurora cannot be seen with the naked eye even if it is physically present in the upper atmosphere.
Built for aurora chasers, photographers, dark-sky tourism operators, and anyone curious whether the northern lights will be visible from their backyard, cabin, or favorite viewpoint. Available in English and Brazilian Portuguese. No login, no signup, no advertising, no analytics tracking.
The map view shows the global auroral oval as a real-time heatmap — brighter regions indicate higher probability of visible aurora at that latitude. Cloud cover overlays let you see where skies are currently clear and where you'd need to drive to escape the weather. Click anywhere on the map to recalculate the forecast for that point, useful for planning a road trip to a dark-sky location.
The visibility model is updated continuously from NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center bulletins, with cloud cover refreshing every 30 minutes from OpenWeatherMap. The methodology is documented openly on the About page so you can see exactly how each ingredient is weighted, and the Contact page explains how to report a forecast that disagrees with what you actually observed in the sky.
