Aurora & space-weather watch·iPhone · Apple TV · Apple Watch
When reporting a problem, it helps to include your device and OS version (e.g. iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 18.5), the app version (Settings → About inside Heliograph), and what you expected versus what happened.
Heliograph is a focused, native space-weather app. It pulls current conditions and short-horizon forecasts directly from public government sources — NOAA and NASA — and shows them plainly, with an honest timestamp on every value.
A full-screen, data-reactive aurora — calm teal when quiet, brightening greens as activity builds, a magenta-violet push in a real storm. Choose a 3D aurora globe, the live Sun, or a solar-wind field.
Aurora australis is rendered first-class alongside borealis — real polar maps with the auroral oval, local darkness, and a “where do I go tonight?” ground map.
A quiet → watch → storm state machine reads solar wind and Kp and shows exactly which triggers fired, with an honest Sun → L1 → Earth arrival timeline.
What a storm actually touches — the power grid, GPS/GNSS accuracy, and HF radio — explained without alarmism.
Heliograph shows real conditions and short-range forecasts — not millisecond telemetry. While the app is open it refreshes on each source’s own cadence, and every reading carries an “as of <UTC>” stamp so you always know how fresh it is.
The freshest inputs come from NOAA’s spacecraft at the L1 point: in-situ solar wind within about 5 minutes, CME imagery within about 30 minutes. That is the physical ceiling — the app never pretends to beat it.
Space-weather feeds occasionally lag or drop out. Rather than hide that, Heliograph keeps showing the last known value with its real “as of” time so you can judge it for yourself.
When solar-wind data is unavailable, the aurora forecast honestly falls back to a Kp-driven nowcast with reduced lead time, and storm triggers that depend on the magnetic field (Bz) are paused and labelled. Heliograph will always ease to a calm state rather than invent a storm from stale data.
Location is optional. If you grant it, it is used only on your device to draw your aurora viewline and your local darkness/terminator on the map. It is never stored and never sent anywhere.
You can use Heliograph without granting location — on Apple TV, where there is no GPS, you simply pick a region instead.
Yes. Values are timestamped in UTC by default — the standard for space weather — but you can pick a display time zone so the “as of” times and other clock readings show in your local time. Calendar dates stay in UTC to match the source data.
On iPhone, while you have Heliograph open, a significant storm can surface as a Live Activity on your Lock Screen. It is generated on your device the moment a storm is detected — there is no account, no device token, and no server involved.
If you don’t see one during a storm, make sure Live Activities are enabled in iOS Settings → Heliograph, and note that they only appear for storm-level activity, not routine conditions.
These are optional, on-device alerts. Enable notifications for Heliograph in iOS Settings → Heliograph → Notifications, then opt in inside the app. They are computed locally from the forecast — no tracking is involved.
On iPhone, yes. Heliograph adds Siri and App Shortcuts for things like current conditions, the Kp index, storm status, recent flares, and whether aurora is likely tonight. Each request fetches a fresh value from the public NOAA feed on your device and speaks it back — and it’s freshness-gated, so a stale feed never voices a phantom “all calm.”
The Apple Watch app gives you current conditions at a glance, with complications you can add to a watch face. It’s an embedded companion of the iPhone app, so installing Heliograph on iPhone offers it to your paired Apple Watch automatically.
On Apple TV, Ambient Mode is the built-in lean-back experience — just open it. From iPhone, you can AirPlay or screen-mirror the ambient view to any AirPlay-compatible TV. Ambient Mode is built to run for hours with burn-in and thermal care.
Heliograph offers Lock Screen and StandBy widgets and a Control Center control. Add a widget by long-pressing your Lock Screen or Home Screen, tapping +, and choosing Heliograph. Add the control from Control Center → Edit → Add a control.
Heliograph is a native app for iPhone, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. Features vary by platform — for example, GPS-based viewlines are replaced by a region picker on Apple TV.
No. There is no account, no sign-in, and no subscription. Just download and open the app.
Heliograph presents data and forecasts from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center and NASA imagery as faithfully as possible, but space-weather forecasting is inherently uncertain. Treat the app as a well-sourced guide, not a guarantee — especially for aurora visibility, which also depends on local weather, light pollution, and the Moon.
Typical refresh intervals while the app is open. Every value also carries its own “as of <UTC>” timestamp.
Data sources: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) — including the spacecraft at L1, the GOES satellites, and ground stations — plus NASA SDO solar imagery via the Helioviewer Project. Heliograph is not affiliated with or endorsed by NOAA or NASA.
Privacy is built in by design:
In App Store terms, Heliograph collects no data. Read the full Privacy Policy, or email bijan@aphelionengineering.com.au.
Heliograph needs an internet connection to reach NOAA and NASA. Check your connection, then pull to refresh (or reopen the app). If a public feed is temporarily down, the app will keep showing the last known value with its timestamp and recover automatically once the feed returns.
Aurora visibility depends on more than the forecast — darkness, clear skies, low light pollution, and your distance from the pole all matter. Use the “where do I go tonight?” map to see the visibility line for your region.
Confirm Live Activities are enabled in iOS Settings → Heliograph. They appear only for storm-level activity, not routine conditions, and only while Heliograph is running to detect the storm.
The watch app is a companion of the iPhone app. Make sure your Apple Watch is paired and has enough space, then check the Watch app on iPhone under Available Apps and tap Install next to Heliograph.
Email bijan@aphelionengineering.com.au with your device, OS version, and app version and I’ll help.