Aurora — Northern Lights Forecast

Will you see the northern lights tonight? This watch face answers that question with live NOAA space-weather data — and shows you the real sky above your own head. THREE SCREENS, ONE PER WRIST RAISE Raise your wrist and the face moves to the next screen; three raises bring you back to the first. Every arc and gauge fills from zero as it appears, each one a fraction of a second after its neighbour, and the numbers count up with them. 1 — THE ODDS. A large arc and a percentage: your chance of seeing an aurora right now, at your position. Not a raw index — a real probability that combines the geomagnetic activity, how far north you are, how dark the sky is and the cloud cover. Below it, the Kp value and a plain-language verdict. 2 — THE SKY. The northern horizon as you would see it. The curtains rise with the real probability, and there are none at all when there is nothing to see — this face never pretends. Behind them, the true starry sky of YOUR location: real stars, the Milky Way, Andromeda, Orion, the Pleiades, each where it actually is for your latitude, your longitude and this very minute. The moon shows its real phase, and active meteor showers are named. 3 — THE DASHBOARD. Earth seen from above the North Pole, the auroral oval drawn over it, your own position marked in gold. Around it, the four numbers a hunter watches. WHAT THE FOUR GAUGES MEAN Kp — the planetary geomagnetic index, 0 to 9. Above 5 is a storm; the higher it climbs, the further south the aurora reaches. Bz — the north-south tilt of the interplanetary magnetic field, in nanotesla. NEGATIVE is what you want: a southward Bz opens the door and lets the solar wind in. Around -10 nT makes a good night. Wind — the speed of the solar wind, in km/s. Above 500 km/s things get interesting. Bt — the total strength of the interplanetary magnetic field, in nT. A strong Bt together with a negative Bz is the best combination there is. Under the gauges, six bars give the forecast for today and the next five days. ALSO ON THE FACE - Dark-sky window (astronomical twilight), sunset and sunrise, moon phase - Meteor showers: the next ones, and the one running tonight - Weather, temperature, battery, heart rate, steps and calories on the outer ring - Always-On mode, kept coloured but within the 10 % pixel budget - Live NOAA data (planetary K index and OVATION aurora model), refreshed in the background COMPATIBILITY - Garmin watches with a round AMOLED display: fenix 9 / 9 Pro (43, 47, 51 mm), fenix 8 / 8 Pro (43, 47, 51 mm), fenix E, epix (Gen 2) and epix Pro (Gen 2), Forerunner 265 / 265S / 965 / 970 / 570 / 170, Venu 3 / 3S / 4, vivoactive 6, MARQ (Gen 2), Approach S70, Descent Mk3, D2 Mach 1 / Mach 2, Instinct Crossover AMOLED, tactix 7 AMOLED / tactix 8, quatix 7 / 8. No version for MIP displays (fenix 7, Forerunner 955 / 255...): the face needs the colour and transparency of AMOLED. PAYMENT - Free 2-hour trial, then a one-time purchase of $4.99 (+ VAT) via KiezelPay: the watch shows a code, you enter it at kzl.io/code. The licence is tied to your watch and is never asked again. No subscription.

Version 1.1 — the Sun and the Moon now travel around the face OPTIMISED FOR THE FENIX 9 PRO. Memory and drawing time were measured on the watch itself, not on the simulator — the 51 mm was the reference throughout. - THE SUN AND THE MOON GO ROUND THE RIM, like a sundial: sunrise on the left, noon at the top, sunset on the right. How far they sit from the edge tells their height in the sky. - THE SUN TAKES THE COLOUR OF THE HOUR — white at midday, gold, then the red of sunset. It reddens exactly as the sky does around it, because the light crosses more air when the star is low. - NORTH IS BACK AT THE CENTRE of the aurora panorama. It had been half a turn off since the first release: the curtains, the Moon and the Sun were placed on the opposite side of the sky. - WRIST RAISE FIXED. The face was taking too long to redraw and the watch was cutting it short — sometimes nothing happened at all. - ALWAYS-ON WITH THE POLAR GLOBE on all three screens, not just one. - AURORA PROBABILITY CORRECTED. It was well over-stated far from the auroral oval — the figure now matches what the professional services give for the same place. - The Moon keeps its real phase and is shown only when it is really there: a hollow ring when it is below the horizon or new. Thank you for your support, and clear skies.