Real-time Auroral Images and Maps at Your Fingertips: the GI Aurora Imaging App

Since the International Geophysical Year (1958) the Geophysical institute has maintained a set of sensitive all-sky cameras to image auroral activity across Alaska. Since 2007, the observatory at Poker Flat Research Range has provided real-time images from a state-of-the-art electron multiplying CCD (EMCCD) camera on a dedicated website, and since 2011 we have offered three-color images in near real-time. Due to the increasing popularity of these browser-based sites, we have developed a smart-phone and tablet compatible application that will deliver a three-color all-sky image within ~ 30 seconds after the camera has collected the image. We anticipate that users will cover a broad range of interests including local aurora tourists to operations managers assessing the impact to communications or navigation effects. We will describe the current capabilities as well as planned upgrades to include a wider network of cameras and the addition of real-time and archived movies.