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Comment by lukan | Hacker News Reader

I missed it (seeing the Aurora) .. are there any reliable alerts for this sort of event, that do not alert me about anything else, but really only such big events?

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https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services

Thanks, that seems exactly what I was looking for. (Now I have to figure out the best way to get a alert to my phone if my inbox receives such a mail, probably easiest to use a a mailadress just for this case and then treat this emailadress different)

One caveat is, that these events cannot be forecasted in the same way as weather on earth can. You usually only have a lead time of 15 - 45 minutes. See also https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/aurora-tutorial

Sure. But if I am awake, those 15 minutes are enough to get dressed and go outside.

Yesterday I just would have had to walk to the balkony to see it, but I was busy with some frustrating coding problem instead ..

same, I was awake for the whole night but completely missed it

On iOS there’s an app literally called “Aurora”.

It will notify you when you’re in an area with a high Kp (or above a Kp you specify).

I had registered for alerts on https://aurorasaurus.org/. But that alert was sent way too late for me (strongest lights were yesterday around 10-11 PM, and the notification was sent 2 AM today). But I was very lucky and just noticed the lights by accident on my way home.

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