Following on from that missed event, we have been working on a few changes to our alert system to hopefully improve our alert level accuracy.

Whilst some of those changes are still being worked on and tested, today we made the switch to using data from our Aberdeen (Crooktree) magnetometer, rather than our Lancaster magnetometer, to generate alerts.

Because Aberdeen is quite a bit further north than Lancaster, our magnetometer there records higher levels of disturbance in the earth’s magnetic field. This means that we are more likely to issue alerts (and of a higher level) than before.

So you might see a few more yellow alerts than before and, on the odd occasion, we might get amber (or red!) rather than yellow (or amber). This will hopefully allow us to alert more of you that an aurora might be visible.

We’ll be keeping an eye out on the new data, but envisage that all will go smoothly and the Aberdeen magnetometer will be our primary magnetometer for alerts going forward.