A real-time view of the solar-terrestrial conditions that drive shortwave radio — solar flux, sunspot number, geomagnetic (Kp) activity, band-by-band HF propagation, solar-flare activity and the auroral oval. Everything updates automatically from live space-weather feeds.
Radio propagation on the HF bands (roughly 3–30 MHz) is governed by the Sun. This dashboard brings the key indicators into one place:
Readings are drawn from public space-weather sources including NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) and the widely-used HamQSL solar feed. The values refresh continuously, so the dashboard reflects near-real-time conditions rather than a static snapshot.
As a rule of thumb, a higher solar flux improves the higher bands (20m, 15m, 10m), especially in daylight, while the lower bands (80m, 40m) tend to do their best at night. A rising Kp index works against you — geomagnetic storms absorb and scatter HF signals, particularly on paths that cross high latitudes. Watch for X-ray flares too: a strong flare can black out the daylight side of the HF spectrum for minutes to hours.
Amateur (ham) radio operators, shortwave listeners, emergency communicators and long-distance broadcasters all depend on the ionosphere to bounce signals around the world. The same solar activity also affects GPS accuracy, satellite operations and power grids — which is why real-time space-weather monitoring is useful well beyond the radio hobby.
The geomagnetic and aurora map in this dashboard is rendered on LatLng vector basemap tiles. You can build your own live data dashboards — space weather, sensors, logistics, anything with coordinates — using the LatLng Maps API and Dataset Tiles API on a free tier.
Broadly, an SFI below ~70 means quiet, difficult high-band conditions; 100–150 is good; and 200+ can open 10m and 12m for worldwide DX. Higher is generally better for long-distance HF.
Kp runs from 0 to 9 and measures geomagnetic disturbance. 0–3 is quiet and good for HF; 5 or above indicates a geomagnetic storm that degrades HF paths and can trigger auroras.
The feeds refresh continuously — solar-flux and geomagnetic indices are updated through the day, so the dashboard shows near-real-time conditions.