Aurora Forecast 3D

The Aurora Forecast 3D is a tool to track down where the aurora is located in the sky from any location on planet. It renders Earth in 3D with rotation and scaling at your fingertips. You can select locations and make your own ground - station list. The Sun illuminates the globe as it updates in near real-time. The short term forecasts are up to +6 hours, while long term forecasts are up to 3 days ahead in time. They are updated when the app is active and connected to internet.

An Aurora Compass is included that shows where the auroral oval, the Moon and the Sun are located as you look up at the sky from your location. The phase and age of the Moon is also visualized in the compass. By zooming out in the 3D view port, satellites, stars and planets appear in their orbits around the Sun.

FEATURES

- 3D view port of Earth with zoom and rotation.

- Solar illumination of the Earth and the Moon.

- Aurora oval size and location in real time [1,2].

- Location of the Day-side Cusp aurora (red)

- Forecasts based on predicted Kp index estimated by the Space Weather Prediction Centre (NOAA-SWPC).

- Color scaled Kp speedometer.

- Aurora Compass sky view display.

- Editable station / location list

- Go to animation.

- Right Ascension (RA) and Declination (DEC) of the Moon, Sun and planets [3].

- Age of the Moon including the phase.

- Includes a 2.4 million star map [4].

- City light texture [5].

- Earth, Sun and Moon textures [6,7].

- Sky view module to track planets and stars [8].

- 3-day space weather condition forecast as news ticker.

- 3-day long term Kp index summary plot.

- Two-Line Element (TLE) satellite orbit calculations [9].

- Skyview navigation.

- Laser Star pointer to 3D view port constellations [10].

- Sounding rocket trajectories

- Sun and Moon daily elevation plots with rise and set time.

- Epoch selection for magnetic pole position [11].

- Sky colors according to Lord Baron Rayleigh.

-Ovals based on polar orbiting satellites data[12].

-Target information web links

- All-sky camera links to the Boreal Aurora Camera Constellation (BACC)

- YouTube demonstration.

References

[1] Sigernes F., M. Dyrland, P. Brekke, S. Chernouss, D.A. Lorentzen, K. Oksavik, and C.S. Deehr, Two methods to forecast auroral displays, Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (SWSC), Vol. 1, No. 1, A03, DOI:10.1051/swsc/2011003, 2011.

[2] Starkov G. V., Mathematical model of the auroral boundaries, Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, 34 (3), 331-336, 1994.

[3] P. Schlyter, How to compute planetary positions, http://stjarnhimlen.se/, Stockholm, Sweden.

[4] Bridgman, T. and Wright, E., The Tycho Catalog Sky map- Version 2.0, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3572, January 26, 2009.

[5] The Visible Earth catalog, http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, April-October, 2012.

[6] T. Patterson, Natural Earth III - Texture Maps, http://www.shadedrelief.com, October 1, 2016.

[7] Nexus - Planet Textures, http://www.solarsystemscope.com/nexus/, January 4, 2013.

[8] Hoffleit, D. and Warren, Jr., W.H., The Bright Star Catalog, 5th Revised Edition (Preliminary Version), Astronomical Data Center, NSSDC/ADC, 1991.

[9] Vallado, David A., Paul Crawford, Richard Hujsak, and T.S. Kelso, Revisiting Spacetrack Report #3, AIAA/AAS-2006-6753, https://celestrak.com, 2006.

[10] Christensen L.L., M. Andre, B. Rino, R.Y. Shida, J. Enciso, G.M. Carillo, C. Martins, and M.R. D'Antonio, The Constellations, The International Astronomical Union (IAU), https://iau.org, 2019.

[11] Tsyganenko, N. A., Secular drift of the auroral ovals: How fast do they actually move?, Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 3017-3023, 2019.

[12] M. J. Breedveld, Predicting the Auroral Oval Boundaries by Means of Polar Operational Environmental Satellite Particle Precipitation Data, Master thesis, Department of Physics and Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, The Arctic University of Norway, June 2020.