The aurora reports screen of the app gives you a view of all aurora activity reports over the past 12 hours. These include reports where users have seen aurora activity (Yes/green marker) and where activity has not yet been visible (No/red marker). This is a unique function of the Amazing Aurora app that lets users be active participants in the “thrill of the chase” and also helps to research aurora activity for continued development of the app. When users report legitimate responses of Yes or No, it allows for further analysis of the conditions currently occurring in the auroral regions of Earth and helps to identify areas in the app which need to be refined in order to make the user’s experience what they expect it to be: see the aurora when the app tells you conditions are prime!
When users submit reports of aurora activity, they are helping the chase community as well. Anyone subscribed to the app has the option to be notified when aurora activity is spotted in their area. When a Yes report comes in within the notification radius of a user’s device, the user is notified that activity has been spotted. This helps to alert the community that a chaser has spotted activity and it is time to go outside and look for the aurora!
One main concern with the aurora reporting function is the chance that erroneous reports can be made. An attempt is made to correct these submissions if it is known that activity could or would not be occurring in that location. However, by the time the alert is received and corrections made, anyone inside the notification radius of the report has already been notified. There have not been extreme instances of this occurring, but know that it is possible to see erroneous reports on the display. When these have been identified, they will show up as a gray maker on the map.
Free Versus Subscription
The free version of the app allows you to see the past 12 hours of all reports, Yes and No. The subscription version allows you to filter out reports so you can just look at the Yes or No reports in addition to looking at all reports. It also allows you to go back up to 36 hours in 6-hour increments to see where aurora activity reports were made.