High Frequency Radio
A live, fully customisable space weather and HF propagation workspace built from over forty drag and drop widgets, powered by BOM SWS, NOAA SWPC, NASA DONKI, and the global ionosonde network.
Included in the 14-day Pro trial on every new account. No credit card.
Walkthrough
Empty canvas with the column grid selector and the widget palette.
Overview
HF propagation is driven by an ionosphere that is in constant motion. Solar flares, coronal mass ejections, geomagnetic storms, sporadic E events, and the daily diurnal cycle all change which frequencies will work between any two points on the planet right now. Operators who do not check current conditions before transmitting waste time, miss critical traffic, and sometimes commit safety of life communications to a band that is already closed.
The noIM₃ Ionospheric Conditions Dashboard consolidates everything an HF operator, emergency communications coordinator, or RF engineer needs to know about current space weather into a single configurable workspace. Rather than a fixed layout, the dashboard is a drag and drop canvas with over forty live widgets covering solar output, geomagnetic activity, ionospheric state, energetic particle flux, and derived HF propagation products. Every layout is persisted per user, so a DX operator, a maritime HF officer, an emergency communications volunteer, and a defence comms planner can each build a workspace that reflects their operational focus.
Data is sourced from authoritative feeds. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology Space Weather Services for the regional view, NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center for the global picture, NOAA DSCOVR for solar wind, GOES for X ray and EUV monitoring, NASA DONKI for CME and storm tracking, and the global ionosonde network for live foF2 and MUF(3000) readings. Automatic refresh, staleness detection (>15 min), a UTC clock, and a configurable alert engine that fires against user defined thresholds keep operators aware of data currency at all times.
A configurable one, two, or three column grid lets you compose your own dashboard from the widget palette. Every tile supports four size presets (1x1, 2x1, 2x2, 3x2), drag to reposition, overlap detection, fullscreen expansion, and per widget refresh. Layouts are persisted per user.
A top of page summary banner distils current solar, geomagnetic, and HF propagation state into an immediate go or no go read. User configurable alert thresholds (Kp, A index, X ray class, proton flux, Bz, solar wind speed) drive colour coded warnings and an integrated alerts panel that ingests NOAA SWPC watches, warnings, and advisories.
F10.7 solar radio flux observed against predicted, twenty year history, time series, and spectrum. Sunspot number, active regions with flare probabilities, GOES X ray flare monitoring, EUVS Lyman alpha and Mg II indices, and full solar cycle context. Together they give a complete picture of the solar drivers behind HF propagation.
K index over 24 hours, A index over 30 days, DST, planetary Kp seven day bar chart, Kp three day forecast with storm outlook, NOAA R, S, and G scales, magnetometer readings, and a geomagnetic activity map showing Kp driven auroral oval latitudes and affected HF path zones.
Live global foF2 ionospheric map (ITU model), ionosonde readings for foF2 and MUF(3000), HF band conditions from 160 m to 10 m derived from Kp and F10.7, D layer absorption and short wave fadeout impact, NVIS suitability with diurnal foF2 curve, sporadic E monitoring, band opening matrix (10 bands by 4 path types), and a point to point Path MUF planner.
NOAA DSCOVR solar wind feed with IMF Bz, Bt, speed, and density. 24 hour Bz trend with storm onset annotations. Energetic proton (>=10 MeV) and electron (>=2 MeV) flux. Differential particle spectrograms for SEP events. NASA DONKI CME and storm tracker with predicted Kp arrival windows. NOAA OVATION aurora oval for polar path risk.
Grey line widget shows the day and night terminator with twilight enhancement band for DX planning. NOAA advisories surfaces plain text SWPC watches, warnings, alerts, and summaries. UTC clock, staleness badge, and background refresh indicator keep operators aware of data currency at all times.
Drop in transmit and receive coordinates and the dashboard returns MUF, LUF, OWF, and a suggested band list for the current ionosphere. Useful for a fast pre flight check on a specific circuit without leaving the situational awareness view.
Inputs and outputs
Inputs 4
Outputs 12
Use cases
BOM Space Weather Services for the Australian regional view, NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center for the global picture, NOAA DSCOVR for solar wind, GOES for X ray and EUV, NASA DONKI for CME and storm tracking, and the global ionosonde network for live foF2 and MUF(3000) readings. Each widget is annotated with its source and a staleness indicator fires if data is more than 15 minutes old.
Fully. The canvas supports a one, two, or three column grid, and every tile has four size presets (1x1, 2x1, 2x2, 3x2). You can drag tiles to reposition, expand any tile to fullscreen, and the layout is persisted per user so your workspace is restored on every visit.
Yes. Alert thresholds for Kp, A index, X ray flare class, proton flux, Bz, and solar wind speed are user configurable. When a threshold is crossed the summary banner changes colour and the alerts panel surfaces the event together with any related NOAA SWPC watch, warning, or advisory.
Yes. The path MUF planner widget takes transmit and receive coordinates and returns MUF, LUF, OWF, and a suggested band list against the current ionosphere. For a full ITU P.533 link prediction with link budget and reliability you would use the noIM₃ HF Link Planner, which integrates with this dashboard for a complete workflow.
Band conditions across 160 m to 10 m are derived from current Kp and F10.7 against the diurnal cycle and seasonal context, then summarised into a band by path type matrix (day, night, short path, long path) so an operator can see at a glance which bands are likely to be open and to where.
Yes. The dashboard is built around storm awareness. Kp forecast, NOAA G scale, DSCOVR solar wind, IMF Bz with storm onset annotations, NASA DONKI CME tracker with predicted arrival windows, OVATION aurora oval, and proton flux are all first class widgets, with alerts wired to the indices that matter for your operations.
Yes. The NVIS suitability widget plots the diurnal foF2 curve at your location and indicates whether the operating frequency is supported by the current and forecast ionosphere for short to medium range tactical links.
Related
Included in the 14-day Pro trial on every new account. No credit card.
