This Canadian app will text you when the northern lights are out | Daily Hive

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For Josh Shankowsky, the northern lights were always a part of his life. On his family’s farm in rural Alberta, he remembers standing outside as a kid, watching the sky light up and seeing the excitement reflected in his mom’s eyes.

Those early memories stuck with him, and years later, Shankowsky launched Aurora Admin. This made-in-Edmonton aurora forecasting service sends SMS notifications alerting users of an aurora in more than 40 countries.

While chasing the aurora with a small group of friends, Shankowsky began digging into the science behind when and where the lights appear. The group shared satellite data, compared patterns, and tracked solar activity in a private Facebook group, but he quickly realized that the forecasting methods most people relied on did not work for him.

“I always hated the charts and graphs. It’s just not how I learned. So, I was like, well, I need something where I could look at the information, and it makes sense to me,” he explained.

So he started reorganizing the information into tables that made it easier to spot when conditions were lining up. By watching satellite data in real time and then heading outside to compare it to what was actually happening in the sky, he noticed a consistent delay between when solar activity was detected and when the aurora became visible, often within five to 10 minutes.

Drawing on his background as an instrumentation technician, along with experience in web design, Shankowsky began turning those observations into a forecasting system. Aurora Admin pulls data from multiple sources, including NOAA in the United States, as well as select inputs from the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.

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Rather than relying heavily on the decades-old KP index still used by most aurora apps, the platform focuses on hemispheric power, solar positioning, and location-based modelling for more precise forecasts.

“A lot of people are still just looking at the KP, but I’ve found that’s not necessarily the best indicator. Even the other night, all the apps were saying one per cent, and the northern lights were directly above my house.”

Text messages were a deliberate choice, he explained, since aurora viewing often happens in remote areas with limited connectivity, and alerts are more likely to get through than app notifications. Users can set a nearest city or custom location, choose quiet hours, and adjust advanced thresholds depending on how aggressively they want to chase the lights.

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Aurora Admin typically sends alerts about 30 to 60 minutes before aurora activity is expected, with accuracy often within 30 to 50 kilometres, though the service advertises a broader range to account for variability. With future updates planned, including AI-assisted validation, Shankowsky hopes to extend that forecast window even further and make aurora chasing a little less about luck.

You can sign up or learn more on the Aurora Admin website.