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Reading the forecast

The detailed 48 hour forecast along with the map overlays offer powerful tools in predicting the weather for a given location. With a bit of practice you'll be able to check the weather with a quick glance.

Unlike other services, Astrospheric can create a forecast for any location covered by the CMCs RDPS model. Make sure you know how to change your forecast location!

High level overview
The Astrospheric forecast is broken into the following major portions. Each provides useful details for planning a night out under the stars.
48 hour details

The detailed forecast is broken into sky and ground variables, along with ISS and Kp index data. The darker the blue the sky data, the better the conditions.

Tapping any hour in the forecast will update the mini-cloud map and legend to show more details for that hour.

On a computer you can move through the hours with your keyboards arrow keys.

Tapping on an ISS flyover icon will bring up a detailed flyover path.

Note: If you are using Astrospheric Professional, your cloud forecast will include ensemble cloud data

Tapping on any variable in the legend will bring up a detailed explanation of the variable. Below is a short explanation of each.


Selected hour legend

Long range cloud forecast
The long range (extended) cloud forecast pulls in an additional 8 to 10 days of cloud data. The chart can be read just like the clouds in the detailed 48 hour forecast. Sun and moon details are also given with this chart.
Moon Details
The Moon details list the phase, altitude, illumination, and age for the current time. The next major moon phases and dates are listed to the right.