Aurora Australis
Dunedin Nowcast Level
You need a clear view to the south. The best places to do that are dark beaches on the east coast of the southern part of South Island. In Dunedin you can for example go to:
Make sure the weather is clear. The fewer clouds the better, so make sure you can see the stars before you go. Aurora often appears only low on the horizon, so make sure there are no clouds blocking your view.
Do not have high expectations! The southern lights are not easy to see from southern New Zealand. The chances are low to photograph them with a sensitive camera, and even lower to see one that is strong enough to be visible by eye. If you are out and hunt for aurora, do not forget to enjoy the stunning night sky! Also, bring warm clothing and be prepared to wait in the dark for a couple of hours…..
The program estimates geomagnetic activity from the maximum disturbance in the X component (horizontal, N-S) of the Earth's magnetic field. It creates alerts when it exceeds a selected threshold, where the disturbance = |quiet day curve - measured value|. The plots and the most recent maximum hourly value are recalculated every 10 minutes. Alerts are issued as soon as a threshold is reached which means it is possible several alerts of different levels are issued in a one hour period. Link to the archive.
Aurora only visible with a good camera (Long Exposure & high ISO).
Possibly visible for good cameras.Aurora might be visible with the naked eye. Clearly visible with a camera (Long Exposure & moderate ISO).
Visible for cameras.High chance for aurora to be visible with the naked eye. Clearly visible with a camera.
Strongly visible for cameras.
The satellite observations are made by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership weather satellite, operated by NOAA. This image is the Near Constant Contrast product made using the Day Night Band of the VIIRS sensor. Similiar images are available for daytime, nightime over Western Europe and the UK, and also New Zealand's overpasses by the NOAA-20 satellite. See the Latest Auroral Images from Space website for the most recent of these pictures. New Zealand image processing provided by the Otago University Space Physics Group.
This is a free service offering alerts of when the aurora might be visible from southern New Zealand, especially Dunedin. It is run by scientists in the Space Physics group in the University of Otago at the Department of Physics. The Macquarie Island and Eyrewell data is typically slightly time-delayed (for normal operations this can be as much as 1 hour).
Observations are provided by the Australian Antarctic Division via Intermagnet, GNS Science GeoNet, and the Otago University Space Physics Group. This website and the aurora nowcasting code was created by Moritz Wolf, and maintained by Dr James Brundell.
We run this Aurora Warning/Alert System with the best intention to improve the experience for aurora hunters in southern New Zealand. However we do not guarantee that the warning is 100% accurate and might not be available 24/7.
