README.md

MagTag Space weather display

A fairly simple Magtag app that grabs Space Weather from NOAA.

ToDo

• get some graphic or display space weather alerts - not doing.
• program so it will try both my home wifi and my phone as a hotspot.

Library requirements

• adafruit_bitmap_font
• adafruit_display_text
• adafruit_fakerequests
• adafruit_io
• adafruit_magtag
• adafruit_requests
• neopixel
• simpleio

Secrets.py

Do not check in secrets.py. Just place at the top level of the project with code.py.

secrets = {
   "ssid":"SSID",
    "password":"passwd"
}

Data Sources

Data source to investigate https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/

K index use: https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/products/noaa-planetary-k-index.json

Flux: https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/products/10cm-flux-30-day.json

Alerts: https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/products/alerts.json

A Index; https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/json/predicted_fredericksburg_a_index.json

sunspot number: http://www.sidc.be/silso/DATA/EISN/EISN_current.txt

Interpreting the data

Reading https://www.qrparci.org/resource/FDIM81.pdf to gain a bit more knowledge.

• K index
  • 0-9 published every 3 hours with a 24 window
  • Magnetometers on the earth measure the condition of our magnetic field. The amount of movement (or, “wiggling”) is averaged and reported by NOAA
• A index
  • 0-20 is a good number
  • 0-400 representing the overall planetary geomagnetic conditions for the UTC day

A / K index

K	A	Condition
0	0–2	Very Quiet S1–S2 None
1	3–5	Quiet S1–S2 None
2	6–9	Quiet S1–S2 Very low
3	12–19	Unsettled S2–S3 Very low
4	22–32	Active S2–S3 Low
5	39–56	MINOR storm S4–S6 High
6	67–94	MAJOR storm S6–S9 Very high
7	111–154	SEVERE storm S9+ Very high
8	179–236	SEVERE STORM Blackout Extreme
9	300–400	EXTREME storm Blackout Extreme