🛰️ NOAA SWPC Space Weather Scraper

🚀 Export live space weather data in seconds. Pull the planetary Kp index, solar wind, GOES X-ray flux, official alerts, and sunspot numbers straight from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-06-04 · 📊 Up to 8 fields per record · 5 products · global geomagnetic and solar coverage

Track geomagnetic storms, solar flares, and solar wind conditions using the same public feeds NOAA publishes for forecasters. This Actor reads the keyless SWPC product endpoints and returns clean, per product records with the newest readings first.

Coverage spans five distinct products. Geomagnetic activity through the planetary Kp index, real time solar wind plasma and magnetic field from the DSCOVR and ACE missions, GOES X-ray flux for flare detection, the full live feed of space weather warnings and alerts, and monthly sunspot numbers going back to 1749.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Aurora chasers and photographers	Forecast aurora visibility from Kp and Bz
HF radio and satellite operators	Watch X-ray flux and geomagnetic storms
Researchers and data scientists	Build space weather time series and models
Power grid and aviation analysts	Monitor alerts that affect infrastructure

📋 What the NOAA SWPC Space Weather Scraper does

This Actor connects to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center public product feeds and returns structured records for the product you choose. Each product has its own clean record shape, so you never get columns full of values that belong to a different product.

• Planetary Kp Index geomagnetic activity index with running a index and station count.
• Solar Wind speed, density, temperature, total field Bt, and the southward Bz component.
• GOES X-ray Flux short and long wavelength flux used to classify solar flares.
• Space Weather Alerts the live feed of NOAA warnings, watches, and summaries with parsed codes.
• Sunspot Numbers monthly observed and smoothed sunspot numbers plus the F10.7 radio flux.

🎬 Full Demo (🚧 Coming soon)

⚙️ Input

Choose a product, then optionally cap how many records you want. The newest readings are returned first.

Field	Type	Description
product	select	Which SWPC product to collect. One of kp-index, solar-wind, xray-flux, alerts, sunspots.
maxItems	integer	Maximum number of records to return. Free plan is limited to 10.

Example, the latest planetary Kp index readings:

{
  "product": "kp-index",
  "maxItems": 10
}

Example, the most recent solar wind conditions:

{
  "product": "solar-wind",
  "maxItems": 50
}

⚠️ Good to Know: Solar wind Bt and Bz come from the magnetometer feed and are matched to plasma readings by timestamp. At the very newest minute the magnetometer point can lag the plasma point, so a couple of leading rows may carry a null Bt or Bz until the next reading lands. Sunspot rows older than the modern record use a NOAA no data marker that this Actor normalizes to null.

📊 Output

Each record below is from a real run of this Actor.

Planetary Kp Index record shape:

Field	Description
🛰 product	Product identifier, here kp-index
🕒 time	UTC timestamp of the reading
🧲 kp	Planetary Kp index value
📈 aRunning	Running a index
📡 stationCount	Number of contributing magnetometer stations
🕒 scrapedAt	When this record was collected
❌ error	Error message, null on success

Real sample records:

{
  "product": "kp-index",
  "time": "2026-06-04T15:00:00",
  "kp": 1,
  "aRunning": 4,
  "stationCount": 8,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-04T19:38:42.821Z",
  "error": null
}

{
  "product": "kp-index",
  "time": "2026-06-04T12:00:00",
  "kp": 1.67,
  "aRunning": 6,
  "stationCount": 8,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-04T19:38:42.821Z",
  "error": null
}

{
  "product": "solar-wind",
  "time": "2026-06-04 19:35:00.000",
  "speed": 433.1,
  "density": 1.46,
  "temperature": 57415,
  "bt": 3.61,
  "bz": 1.86,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-04T19:38:56.616Z",
  "error": null
}

✨ Why choose this Actor

• Per product clean records. Every product returns only the fields that belong to it, so there are no permanently empty columns.
• Newest first. Records arrive sorted from most recent to oldest, ready for dashboards and alerting.
• No keys, no setup. The SWPC feeds are public, so there is nothing to register or configure.
• Parsed alerts. Raw alert text is parsed into a message code, serial number, and a one line summary.
• Faithful to the source. Values are passed through as NOAA publishes them, with only no data markers normalized to null.

📈 How it compares to alternatives

Capability	This Actor	Manual feed reading	Generic API client
Five SWPC products in one place	Yes	Partial	No
Clean per product record shapes	Yes	No	No
Parsed alert codes and summaries	Yes	No	No
Newest first ordering	Yes	No	No
No API key required	Yes	Yes	Varies

🚀 How to use

1. Create a free Apify account using this sign up link.
2. Open the NOAA SWPC Space Weather Scraper in the Apify Console.
3. Pick a product, for example kp-index for geomagnetic activity or xray-flux for flares.
4. Set maxItems if you want to cap how many records come back.
5. Click Start, then view or connect the results to your tools.

💼 Business use cases

Aurora and tourism

Need	How this helps
Predict aurora visibility	Combine Kp index with solar wind Bz
Time customer notifications	Watch alerts for geomagnetic storm watches

Communications and navigation

Need	How this helps
Anticipate HF radio blackouts	Track GOES X-ray flux for flare onset
Manage GNSS accuracy risk	Monitor storm alerts and Kp spikes

Power and infrastructure

Need	How this helps
Flag induced current risk	Read geomagnetic warnings as they post
Plan maintenance windows	Use Kp trends to pick quiet periods

Research and education

Need	How this helps
Build space weather datasets	Pull long sunspot and solar cycle history
Teach solar physics	Show live flux and sunspot relationships

🔌 Automating NOAA SWPC Space Weather Scraper

Connect the output to the tools your team already uses.

• Make trigger a scenario when a new geomagnetic alert appears.
• Zapier push fresh Kp readings into a spreadsheet on a schedule.
• Slack post a message when X-ray flux crosses a flare threshold.
• Airbyte sync space weather records into a warehouse.
• GitHub store snapshots in a repository for versioned history.
• Google Drive archive periodic pulls for later analysis.

🌟 Beyond business use cases

• Research assemble decades of sunspot and F10.7 data for solar cycle studies.
• Personal get a heads up when aurora conditions look promising at your latitude.
• Non-profit support amateur radio and citizen science communities with shared feeds.
• Experimentation prototype a space weather model on real Kp and solar wind series.

🤖 Ask an AI assistant

Paste your collected records into an assistant and ask it to summarize conditions.

• ChatGPT
• Claude
• Perplexity
• Microsoft Copilot

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Where does the data come from? From the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center public product feeds at services.swpc.noaa.gov.

Do I need an API key? No. The SWPC feeds are public and keyless, so there is nothing to register.

Which products are available? Planetary Kp index, solar wind, GOES X-ray flux, space weather alerts, and sunspot numbers.

Why do some solar wind rows have a null Bt or Bz? Bt and Bz come from the magnetometer feed and are matched to plasma readings by timestamp. The newest minute can lag, so a leading row or two may be null until the next reading lands.

Why are some older sunspot fields null? Historical rows use a NOAA no data marker for fields that were not measured. This Actor normalizes that marker to null.

How fresh is the data? As fresh as NOAA publishes. Kp updates roughly every three hours, solar wind and X-ray flux update on the order of minutes.

In what order are records returned? Newest first, from the most recent reading back through the available history.

How many records can I get? Free plans return up to 10 records. Paid plans can return far more, up to the product history available.

Can I scrape alerts only? Yes. Set product to alerts to get the live warning and watch feed with parsed codes.

Is the alert text included? Yes. Each alert record includes the full message text plus a parsed code, serial number, and summary line.

Is this affiliated with NOAA? No. This is an independent tool that reads publicly available NOAA data.

What time zone are timestamps in? NOAA publishes these feeds in UTC, and timestamps are passed through unchanged.

🔌 Integrate with any app

Send your records to spreadsheets, databases, dashboards, or messaging tools through Apify integrations, webhooks, or the API.

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💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection.

🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form

⚠️ Disclaimer: independent tool, not affiliated with NOAA or its Space Weather Prediction Center. Only publicly available data is collected.