What KP is good for Aurora?

If the Kp is 5 or greater, the better your chances of seeing an aurora. You can check out the SWPC Estimated Planetary Kp graph to see what has been happening during the past few days. The red bars indicate a Kp higher than 4, which makes your odds of seeing an aurora greater.

Can you see Northern Lights with KP 4?

Kp 2-3: Moderate solar activity. You’ll have a good chance of seeing the Northern Lights. This is the most common forecast in Iceland, so head out if you can. Kp 4-6: This indicates that a solar storm is on the way.

How do you read the Kp index?

Generally, the lower the index, the less activity there is during the period measured.

If the bar is green, this indicates quiet or low levels of geomagnetic activity.
Yellow is an “active” level, indicating moderate geomagnetic activity.
Red bars indicate high geomagnetic activity, also considered a geomagnetic storm.

What does KP mean for Aurora?

geomagnetic
Kp comes from ‘K’ as is ‘Kennziffer’ (‘index’ in German) and ‘p’ as in planetary. The Kp index measures the global strength of a geomagnetic event. It goes from 0 to 9, respectively quiet and extreme storm.

What does Kp-index 5 mean?

geomagnetic storm
The K-index quantifies disturbances in the horizontal component of earth’s magnetic field with an integer in the range 0-9 with 1 being calm and 5 or more indicating a geomagnetic storm.

What is KP in relation to Northern Lights?

The Kp-index describes the disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field caused by the solar wind. The faster the solar wind blows, the greater the turbulence. The index ranges from 0, for low activity, to 9, which means that an intense geomagnetic storm is under way.

What does a KP of 4 mean?

Kp 4 – Active – Bright, constant and dynamic northern lights visible. More colours start to appear. Kp 5 – Minor storm – Bright, constant and colourful aurora display, red and purple colours appear. Aurora coronae likely. Kp 6 – Moderate storm – Bright, dynamic and colourful aurora display.

What does Kp index 5 mean?

What do KP numbers mean?

There is a simple index called Kp, a number from 0 to 9, which is used to refer to geomagnetic activity for a 3-hour period. Check the Space Weather Prediction Center’s bar plot of Estimated Planetary Kp to see what has been happening during the past couple of days.

What is a high Kp-index?

What is KP in astronomy?

Kp comes from ‘K’ as is ‘Kennziffer’ (‘index’ in German) and ‘p’ as in planetary. The Kp index measures the global strength of a geomagnetic event. It goes from 0 to 9, respectively quiet and extreme storm. are sent to a central where they are averaged out into a global K index, the Kp.

How is the Kp index related to the aurora borealis?

Geomagnetic activity is the origin of the Aurora Borealis in our night skies and hence the ferocity of that activity is closely monitored in order to maximise chances of witnessing Mother Nature’s greatest wonder… The Kp-Index does just that by utilising a scale from 0 to 9 where 9 represents a hugely significant geomagnetic storm.

What does the Kp index on a solar wind mean?

Kp-index. The Kp-index describes the disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field caused by the solar wind. The faster the solar wind blows, the greater the turbulence. The index ranges from 0, for low activity, to 9, which means that an intense geomagnetic storm is under way.

Where does the name Kp index come from?

The Kp-Index – derived from the German “Planetarishe Kennziffer meaning “Planetary Index” – is a measure of geomagnetic activity in the Earth’s atmosphere.

What does the Kp index look like in Iceland?

The index ranges from 0, for low activity, to 9, which means that an intense geomagnetic storm is under way. The following information – from the book Your Guide to the Northern lights and night sky above Iceland (published in early 2019)– describes how different Kp-indices look like as seen from Iceland: