Live NOAA data for both hemispheres: where the auroral oval reaches tonight, the 3-day Kp outlook, and the solar wind conditions that drive it.
The dashed lines trace 65.2° geomagnetic latitude in each hemisphere, the approximate equatorward edge of the auroral oval for the current Kp. They curve because Earth's magnetic poles are offset from the geographic poles. Coloured dots are NOAA's OVATION model: where aurora is likely overhead right now (10%+ probability). White-ringed dots are reference places; hover to see their geomagnetic latitude.
Northern and southern aurora viewlines
Interactive map with live data layers
Geomagnetic latitudes use a centered-dipole model of Earth's field: typically within a few degrees, but it understates geomagnetic latitude in southern Australia and New Zealand, and Kp stops at 9, so extreme storms reach further than any line here. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
NOAA's 3-hour Kp values (UTC). Bars marked observed or estimated are measurements; predicted bars are NOAA's forecast.
Search a city, U.S. state or country to open its own forecast page, with local cloud cover, darkness and the Kp it needs.
Sorted from most to least aurora-prone. Geomagnetic latitude is for each state's reference point; the north of a large state sees aurora at a lower Kp than its south.
Scientific terms, names in other languages, Indigenous names and folklore. Where a translation or a story is disputed or only modern, the entry says so.
25 of 25 names
Latin, from Roman and Greek mythology · say "uh-ROR-uh bor-ee-AL-iss"
Meaning: Northern dawn
The scientific name for the aurora of the Northern Hemisphere. It joins Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn, with Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind.
Origin: Usually credited to Galileo Galilei (1619); Pierre Gassendi used it in 1621
Latin · say "uh-ROR-uh aw-STRAY-liss"
Meaning: Southern dawn
The aurora of the Southern Hemisphere, also called the southern lights. It forms around the south geomagnetic pole and is seen from Antarctica, Tasmania, southern mainland Australia, New Zealand and the far south of South America.
Origin: Popularised after James Cook's 1773 voyage in the Southern Ocean
Latin · say "uh-ROR-uh poh-LAIR-iss"
Meaning: Polar dawn
An umbrella term covering both the northern and the southern aurora.
Origin: Scientific Latin
English
Meaning: Northern lights
The everyday English name for the aurora of the Northern Hemisphere.
Origin: English common name
Norwegian and Danish
Meaning: Northern light
The everyday name in Norway, where Tromsø and the Lofoten Islands sit under the auroral oval.
Origin: Norwegian and Danish common name
Swedish
Meaning: Northern glow
The everyday Swedish name; Abisko in Swedish Lapland is a well-known viewing site.
Origin: Swedish common name
Icelandic
Meaning: Northern lights
The Icelandic name. All of Iceland lies close to the auroral oval, so clear, dark nights often bring displays.
Origin: Icelandic common name
German
Meaning: Northern light
The German name; also Polarlicht, polar light, for both hemispheres.
Origin: German common name
French
Meaning: Northern dawn
The French name, a direct descendant of the Latin aurora borealis.
Origin: French form of the Latin term
Spanish and Portuguese
Meaning: Northern dawn
The Spanish and Portuguese name; the southern aurora is aurora austral.
Origin: Spanish and Portuguese form of the Latin term
Italian
Meaning: Northern dawn
The Italian name, keeping the Latin phrase attributed to Galileo almost unchanged.
Origin: Italian form of the Latin term
Polish
Meaning: Polar dawn-glow
The Polish name. Zorza is the ordinary word for the glow of the sky at dawn or dusk.
Origin: Polish zorza, the glow of dawn or dusk, related to Slavic zarya and zora
Russian
Meaning: Northern radiance
The Russian name. Murmansk and the Kola Peninsula lie under the auroral oval.
Origin: Russian common name
Chinese
Meaning: Polar light
The modern Chinese name. In mainland China the aurora is regularly seen only from the far north, around Mohe in Heilongjiang.
Origin: Modern Chinese term
Japanese
Meaning: Aurora
The everyday Japanese name. Low red aurora is occasionally seen from Hokkaido during strong storms.
Origin: Japanese loanword from the Latin aurora
Finnish · say "REH-vohn-too-let"
Meaning: Fox fires
The Finnish name comes from the tale of the tulikettu, the fire fox, whose tail brushed the snow as it ran across the fells and threw sparks into the sky.
Origin: Finnish folklore
Northern Sámi (Sápmi: northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia)
Meaning: Often translated as "the light that can be heard"
The Northern Sámi name. In Sámi tradition the lights were treated with respect and caution: people were told not to wave, whistle or sing at them. The popular translation connects to reports of faint crackling sounds during strong displays.
Origin: Sámi oral tradition
Inuktitut (Canada) / Greenlandic
Meaning: Football players
In many Inuit traditions the lights are the spirits of the dead playing a ball game across the sky, in some tellings with a walrus skull.
Origin: Inuit oral tradition
Cree
Meaning: The northern lights; also described as cîpayak kâ-nîmihitocik, "the spirits are dancing"
In Cree tradition the moving curtains of light are often understood as the spirits of people who have died, dancing.
Origin: Cree oral tradition
Scottish Gaelic
Meaning: The nimble men
In Gaelic folklore the nimble men were sometimes said to be fighting in the sky. In Shetland and Orkney the aurora is called the Merry Dancers.
Origin: Highland and Hebridean folklore
Swedish (coastal folk name)
Meaning: Herring flash
A folk belief along the Swedish coast held that the lights were reflections from great shoals of herring.
Origin: Swedish coastal folklore
Classical Chinese and Japanese records
Meaning: Red vapor
How chroniclers in China and Japan recorded red aurora seen during great geomagnetic storms. These records are used by scientists today to date historical storms.
Origin: Historical chronicles; e.g. the Japanese Meigetsuki diary describes red vapor in 1204
Old Norse mythology
Meaning: Possibly "the shimmering way"
The burning bridge between Midgard and Asgard. The medieval sources describe it like a rainbow; linking Bifröst to the aurora is a modern interpretation, not something the Eddas say.
Origin: Prose Edda and Poetic Edda (13th century)
Modern retelling of Norse myth
A widely repeated story says the aurora is light reflecting off the Valkyries' armour. No Old Norse text says this; it is a modern invention.
Origin: Modern; no Old Norse source
Citizen scientists (2016), later given the name Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement · say "steev"
Meaning: Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement
A narrow mauve ribbon of light, sometimes with a green "picket fence" beneath it, seen equatorward of the main aurora. It is linked to fast, hot flows of ions (subauroral ion drifts) rather than to the particle precipitation that causes ordinary aurora.
Origin: Named by aurora photographers in 2016; described in Science Advances in 2018
This page re-checks its data every 5 minutes. The data itself comes from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center on NOAA's own schedule: real-time solar wind from the DSCOVR spacecraft arrives about once a minute and this site stores the latest readings about every 10 minutes; the planetary Kp index is published for each 3-hour period with an estimate in between; and the 3-day Kp outlook is issued by NOAA forecasters. Kp is shown with the time NOAA observed it; solar wind and OVATION values are shown with the time this site last saved them from NOAA.
It depends on your geomagnetic latitude, which is not the same as geographic latitude because Earth's magnetic poles are offset from the geographic poles. As a rule of thumb the edge of the auroral oval reaches about 60° geomagnetic latitude at Kp 3, 56° at Kp 5, 52° at Kp 7 and 48° at Kp 9, on a 0–9 scale. Chicago, at 41.9°N, is about 51° geomagnetic north, so it usually needs Kp 7 or more; Rome, at the same geographic latitude, is only about 42° geomagnetic and rarely sees aurora at all. Because Kp stops at 9, the most extreme storms can push the aurora further than this rule suggests, and aurora can also appear low on the poleward horizon from somewhat further away.
Only the hemisphere. Both are produced the same way: energy from the solar wind drives electrons down Earth's magnetic field lines into the upper atmosphere, where they make oxygen and nitrogen glow. The northern (borealis) and southern (australis) ovals are usually active at the same time and roughly mirror each other, though not exactly.
Bz is the north–south part of the magnetic field carried by the solar wind. When it points south (negative), it can connect with Earth's own northward-pointing field at the dayside magnetopause, letting far more solar wind energy into the magnetosphere. A Bz that stays below about −5 nT is worth watching, and −10 nT or lower for a long stretch reliably drives storm-level activity. A northward (positive) Bz usually keeps the aurora quiet, even when the solar wind is fast.
STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) is a narrow mauve ribbon of light, sometimes with a green "picket fence" beneath it, seen equatorward of the main aurora. It was named by aurora photographers in 2016 and described scientifically in 2018. Unlike ordinary aurora it is not caused by particles raining into the atmosphere; it is linked to fast, hot flows of ions known as subauroral ion drifts.
Explanations by Spaceweathertracker staff · Last reviewed · Editorial standards · About
Kp observed by NOAA at 18:00 UTC; solar wind last saved from NOAA at 18:00 UTC. Kp shows NOAA's own observation time; solar wind and OVATION show when this site last saved NOAA's reading (NOAA's feed does not give us their observation time).
No telemetry value or forecast number on this page is estimated by artificial intelligence. All values come from NOAA SWPC products and are shown with a timestamp (NOAA's observation time for Kp, otherwise the time this site saved the reading); if a value is unavailable, the page says so instead of guessing.