🌌 AuroraAB

Real-time aurora borealis visibility forecasting for Alberta, Canada.

🔴 Live Demo · 🎥 Video Walkthrough

Know exactly when and where to see the northern lights in Alberta tonight.

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Screenshots

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✨ What It Does

AuroraAB synthesizes 4 independent geophysical data sources into a single viewing recommendation:

• 🛰️ Live KP index from NOAA Space Weather satellites
• ☁️ Real-time cloud cover at every dark sky location
• 🌙 Moon phase and illumination (bright moon hurts visibility)
• 🚗 Drive time and leave-by calculator to reach the aurora peak window

It then uses GPT to translate technical space weather data into plain-English advice anyone can follow.

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🎯 Key Features

• Interactive map of 7 designated Alberta dark sky locations with viewing scores
• 3 selectable map styles — Dark, Streets, Satellite
• In-app route visualization with aurora gradient line drawing from your location to the chosen aurora spot
• AI-powered recommendations using OpenAI GPT-3.5-turbo grounded in real-time data (RAG architecture)
• Past 7 days KP trend chart showing recent geomagnetic activity
• 3-day forecast calendar with intensity meter and plain-English descriptions
• Drive-time optimization with Mapbox Directions API
• Leave-by time calculator based on aurora peak window (11 PM Mountain Time)
• Browser geolocation with Mapbox geocoding fallback
• Mobile responsive dark UI

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Frontend: React 18, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Mapbox GL JS, Recharts
• Backend: Node.js, Express, MongoDB Atlas
• APIs: NOAA SWPC, OpenWeatherMap, Mapbox Directions, OpenAI GPT-3.5-turbo
• Other: SunCalc for moon phase calculations
• Deployment: Render (backend), Vercel (frontend), GitHub Actions for CI, UptimeRobot for monitoring

🧠 AI & GenAI Implementation

This project applies skills from the IBM Generative AI Engineering Professional Certificate:

• Prompt Engineering — Structured prompts with role assignment, output constraints, and hallucination guards
• RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) — Live NOAA, weather, and moon data injected into the LLM prompt at runtime so responses are grounded in current reality, not training data
• AI Application Architecture — Multi-layer pipeline: data ingestion → synthesis → AI layer → presentation
• Responsible AI — Constraint engineering to prevent hallucination and ensure factual responses

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📊 How the Viewing Score Works

Each location gets a 0-100 viewing score calculated from weighted factors:

Score = (KP_score × 0.5) + (cloud_score × 0.3) + (moon_score × 0.2)

Where:
  KP_score    = (currentKP / 9) × 100
  cloud_score = 100 - cloudCoverPercent
  moon_score  = 100 - moonIlluminationPercent

• 70-100 🟢 Excellent viewing
• 40-69 🟡 Moderate viewing
• 0-39 🔴 Poor viewing

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🌌 Dark Sky Locations

AuroraAB tracks 7 officially designated Alberta dark sky locations:

• Jasper National Park (Canada's largest dark sky preserve)
• Banff National Park
• Abraham Lake
• Elk Island National Park
• Kananaskis Country
• Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park
• Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park

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🚀 Local Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• MongoDB Atlas account
• API keys: OpenWeatherMap, Mapbox, OpenAI

Backend Setup

cd server
npm install
npm run dev

Create server/.env with: PORT, OPENWEATHER_API_KEY, MAPBOX_TOKEN, OPENAI_API_KEY, MONGODB_URI

Frontend Setup

cd client
npm install
npm run dev

Create client/.env with: VITE_API_URL, VITE_MAPBOX_TOKEN

Backend runs on http://localhost:5000, frontend on http://localhost:5173.

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🌐 Live Architecture

User → Vercel (React SPA) → Render (Express API) → NOAA SWPC
                                                  → OpenWeatherMap
                                                  → Mapbox Directions
                                                  → MongoDB Atlas
                                                  → OpenAI GPT

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👤 Built By

Mahir Alam — Computer Science student at University of Calgary

Connect: LinkedIn | mahiralam2604@gmail.com

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📜 Data Sources

• NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center — Real-time KP index and geomagnetic forecasts
• OpenWeatherMap — Cloud cover data
• Mapbox — Maps and directions
• OpenAI — GPT-3.5-turbo for natural language explanations
• SunCalc — Moon phase calculations