AuroraWatch UK server issues

10:38 BST on 26 September 2020: we are aware that last night (from around 1800 BST til 0100 BST) the AuroraWatch UK website was unavailable. Additionally, the AuroraWatch data was not being provided by our APIs and so any services relying on these (e.g. AuroraWatch UK apps) were not working as expected. This also resulted…

Yellow Caterpillar excavator digging up dirt.

Disruption to LAN2

From tomorrow, and lasting for a few weeks, the SAMNET Lancaster magnetometer (LAN2) will be turned off. This is due to infrastructure improvement works at the Hazelrigg Weather Station field site. Data users may have noticed that the magnetometer has been acting a little odd recently and so LAN2 had already been removed from the…

Potential disruption to AuroraWatch UK on 09/10 December

On Sunday 9th December, Lancaster University will be completing an upgrade to their file storage system. This work will affect the server that stores the AuroraWatch UK data. The work is expected to commence at 6pm (UTC) on Sunday 09 December and be complete by 8am (UTC) on Monday 10 December 2018. However, some manual…

LAN2 alert issues

The magnetometer located near Lancaster University, known as LAN2, is currently experiencing an issue with one of its sensors. While investigations are underway, we have temporarily removed LAN2 from the list of AuroraWatch UK alert sites. The data from LAN2 is still available on our website but our alert system will not use its data…

Email alerts discontinued

Dear AuroraWatch UK subscriber, It’s with great sadness that we are going to have to close the AuroraWatch UK email alert system with immediate effect. This doesn’t mean that we’re shutting down AuroraWatch, it’s just that we won’t be sending out any more alerts via email. You will still be able to get alerts via…

It’s survey time!

Edit (24/05/18 19:36 BST): the survey is now closed. Thanks to all who took part! Today we are opening up our AuroraWatch UK alert survey and we’d like to encourage you to take part. The aim of the survey is to better understand how you use our alerts, how quickly you respond to them, and…

New Shetland magnetometer

In collaboration with the Shetland Amenity Trust, and thanks to funding from Gradconsult, the AuroraWatch UK team are delighted to announce that we have installed a new magnetometer in Sumburgh, Shetland. This new magnetometer is located in the grounds of the Sumburgh Head lighthouse, making it the most northerly magnetometer in our network. Arguably, it…

New AuroraWatch UK Magnetometer

Thanks to generous funding from GradConsult, an SME specialising in graduate employment, the AuroraWatch UK team are pleased to announce that a new magnetometer will soon be added to our aurora alert network. As part of their newly-founded microgrant scheme, Gradconsult have provided funding for us to build a new Raspberry Pi based magnetometer and…

AuroraCam update

As we blogged about back in March last year, AuroraWatch UK received funding to build an all-sky camera. Today, we have some news to share with you about it! For the past couple of weeks, we have been running a dedicated AuroraWatch UK camera from the roof of our home: the Department of Physics at…