About NOAA SWPC
The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) is the United States government agency responsible for monitoring and forecasting space weather. SWPC provides alerts, warnings, and observational data to protect life and property and to support operations in space and on Earth that can be affected by solar activity.
Learn more on the official SWPC site: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
Background image credit: Vincent Guth on Unsplash
Exact data endpoints we use
Where possible we fetch data directly from SWPC's public services. The primary endpoints used by AuroraMap are:
- OVATION Aurora (latest JSON): https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/json/ovation_aurora_latest.json
- NOAA OVATION Aurora (alternate): https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/products/noaa-ovation-aurora-latest.json
- NOAA Planetary K-index: https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/products/noaa-planetary-k-index.json
- NOAA Planetary K-index Forecast: https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/products/noaa-planetary-k-index-forecast.json
- Solar wind magnetic field (1 day): https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-wind/mag-1-day.json
- Solar wind plasma (1 day): https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-wind/plasma-1-day.json
If you need the raw JSON for any of these in your own project, you can request them directly from the URLs above. These are public endpoints maintained by NOAA SWPC.
How we use this data
We combine the OVATION auroral model output and real-time space weather parameters (Kp index, solar wind speed/density, and magnetic field) to estimate auroral probability and render the aurora visualization on the map. Forecasting is inherently uncertain; SWPC provides the best available observations and model output.
Licensing & credits
Data and model output are provided by NOAA SWPC. Please follow SWPC's terms of use and citations when republishing their data. For official policy and citation guidance see SWPC's website.