Aurora reference
Geomagnetic latitude calculator
Ordinary latitude tells you how far north you are. Geomagnetic latitude tells you how far you are from the aurora, and the two disagree by hundreds of kilometres. Enter any point on Earth to convert it.
or enter coordinates
−90 to 90. Negative is south.
−180 to 180. Negative is west.
Result
- Geomagnetic latitude
- 66.1°
- Geomagnetic longitude
- 102.2°
- Kp needed
- Kp 1
- Look
- North
- Hemisphere
- Northern — aurora borealis
Kp 1 is a quiet, ordinary night. Somewhere this far into the oval sees the aurora often.
How the conversion works
The auroral oval is centred on the geomagnetic pole, not the geographic one, and the two are roughly 800 km apart. So the number that decides whether you can see the aurora is your angle from the magnetic axis, not from the equator.
This calculator uses an eccentric dipole derived from the IGRF-13 coefficients, epoch 2020. The eccentric model shifts the dipole centre about 590 km off Earth's centre, which matters most in the southern hemisphere: a simpler centred dipole underestimates Tasmania and New Zealand by four or five degrees and makes them look like they need a once-a-decade storm.
What geomagnetic longitude is for
Latitude decides whether the aurora reaches you. Longitude decides when. The oval is fixed relative to the Sun rather than to the ground, so it sweeps over you as Earth turns — and two places on the same geomagnetic meridian pass beneath the same part of it at the same moment, whatever their clocks say.
Or look yours up
The same numbers, worked out for 398 cities and sorted from the best odds down.
Geomagnetic coordinates are an approximation of a field that moves. Treat them as a good guide to your odds, not a boundary line.