Understand What
You're Watching
Seven plain-language guides to space weather science — written for aurora chasers, ham radio operators, and anyone who wants to understand what the numbers on the dashboard actually mean. No physics degree required.
Space Weather 101
The Complete Beginner's Guide
What the Sun is constantly doing to Earth's magnetic field. What the magnetosphere is and why it matters. How the aurora actually forms, what colours mean, and what every number on the Aurora Watch dashboard is actually measuring. If you read one article, read this one — everything else builds on it.
The Secret Switch:
How Bz Controls the Aurora
One number — the Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field — does more to determine whether you'll see aurora tonight than almost anything else. Here's why a negative value is the most important thing on the dashboard, and how magnetic reconnection opens Earth's shield.
The Kp Index:
Earth's Magnetic Heartbeat
A number from 0 to 9, updated every three hours, watched by aurora chasers worldwide. But where does it come from? How do 13 ground-based observatories combine into a single planetary average — and what are its real limitations for aurora forecasting?
Coronal Mass Ejections:
When the Sun Fires at Earth
A CME is a billion-ton cloud of magnetised plasma launched from the Sun at thousands of km/s. How does it form, how is it different from a solar flare, how long does it take to reach Earth — and what does its arrival look like on the Aurora Watch dashboard?
Reading the Solar Wind:
Speed, Density & Temperature
The Aurora Watch dashboard shows three live plasma readings from the DSCOVR spacecraft 1.5 million km upstream. What do speed, density, and temperature each tell you — and how do you read them together to identify a CME sheath, a magnetic cloud, or a coronal hole stream?
Substorms:
The Hidden Engine Behind the Best Displays
The dramatic surging, dancing aurora that fills the sky in seconds isn't a Kp event — it's a substorm. Substorms happen multiple times a day, occur even on quiet nights, and are responsible for the most photogenic aurora. Here's how they work and what to look for.
NOAA's Three Scales:
What G, S, and R Actually Mean
NOAA rates space weather with three separate five-point scales — Geomagnetic (G), Solar Radiation (S), and Radio Blackout (R). Each measures a different event type with different causes, different warning times, and different communities who care. Here's the complete breakdown.