Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

darlantan t1_jaatn7w wrote

Reply to comment by samandiriel in the aurora was visible from Central Washington last night! by aasmanijal

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

You can sign up for email alerts that will ping you whenever the geomagnetic K-index gets high enough. It tripped a few times last night.

9

samandiriel t1_jaavme1 wrote

Thanks! I found it hard to navigate and understand how I would sign up for an alert when there would be aurorae in my area, tho - can you eli5?

3

darlantan t1_jaawa5e wrote

It's not quite as simple as "There's an aurora in your area", more that it'll alert you when there's significant event that could generate them. There's a graphic on that page that shows aurora forecast plots.

As for alerts, you can follow the 'subscribe' tab along the top bar. You can select a lot of alerts, but what you probably only really care about are the very high K-index alerts. When you get one, check that page and look at the aurora forecast, and if it's dipping into or close to your location it might be worth going outside and looking north.

4