solarstorm.today MCP server

Live space weather for AI assistants. This MCP server exposes NOAA SWPC data — the planetary Kp index, the official 3-day geomagnetic forecast, GOES solar flare activity, and aurora visibility for any latitude — as four tools your agent can call directly.

It runs the same logic as solarstorm.today, so answers match what the site shows. No API keys, no accounts, no state.

Ask your assistant: "Will I see the aurora in Vienna tonight?" → it calls get_aurora_visibility(48.2) and answers from live NOAA data.

Tools

Tool	Returns
get_current_kp()	Latest planetary Kp, level (low/moderate/high/severe), observed 24-hour maximum
get_kp_forecast_3day()	Maximum forecast Kp per calendar day for the next 3 days (Europe/Berlin days)
get_solar_flares_24h()	Current GOES X-ray flare class and the 24-hour peak, with peak time
get_aurora_visibility(latitude)	Kp needed at that latitude, forecast max Kp for the next 24 h, and a plain-language verdict

// get_current_kp()
{
  "kp": 4.33,
  "level": "moderate",
  "time_utc": "2026-08-27T18:00:00+00:00",
  "max_24h": 5.67,
  "source": "NOAA SWPC"
}

// get_kp_forecast_3day()
{
  "days": [
    { "date": "2026-08-27", "max_kp": 5.67, "level": "high" },
    { "date": "2026-08-28", "max_kp": 4.0,  "level": "moderate" },
    { "date": "2026-08-29", "max_kp": 2.33, "level": "low" }
  ],
  "timezone": "Europe/Berlin",
  "source": "NOAA SWPC",
  "note": "Kp>=5 is a G1 geomagnetic storm on the NOAA scale."
}

// get_solar_flares_24h()
{
  "current_class": "C2.1",
  "peak_24h_class": "M6.9",
  "peak_time_utc": "2026-08-27T04:12:00Z",
  "source": "NOAA GOES (0.1-0.8 nm)"
}

// get_aurora_visibility(48.2)
{
  "latitude": 48.2,
  "kp_needed_naked_eye": 8,
  "forecast_max_kp_24h": 5.67,
  "visible_tonight": false,
  "verdict": "Unlikely: forecast max Kp 5.7 is 2.3 below the ~Kp 8 needed at 48.2°. A camera picks aurora up roughly one Kp level earlier.",
  "details": "https://solarstorm.today/aurora-tonight/"
}

Network or format errors from NOAA come back as an error field. The server never crashes on a bad upstream response.

Use the hosted server (no install)

A public instance is running at https://mcp.solarstorm.today/mcp.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http solarstorm https://mcp.solarstorm.today/mcp

Claude Desktop / claude.ai — add a custom connector pointing at https://mcp.solarstorm.today/mcp.

Any other MCP client — streamable HTTP transport, same URL, no auth.

Run it locally (stdio)

Requires Python 3.10+ — the floor set by the mcp SDK.

git clone https://github.com/newminya/solarstorm-mcp.git
cd solarstorm-mcp
pip install -r requirements.txt
python server.py          # waits for a stdio client; Ctrl+C to quit

claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "solarstorm": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/solarstorm-mcp/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code:

claude mcp add solarstorm -- python /absolute/path/to/solarstorm-mcp/server.py

Self-host it (streamable HTTP)

Three environment variables control the transport:

Variable	Default	Purpose
MCP_TRANSPORT	stdio	Set to streamable-http for a network server
MCP_HOST	0.0.0.0	Bind address — use 127.0.0.1 behind a reverse proxy
MCP_PORT	8765	Listen port

mkdir -p /opt/solarstorm-mcp && cd /opt/solarstorm-mcp
# copy server.py and requirements.txt here
python3 -m venv venv && venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

/etc/systemd/system/solarstorm-mcp.service:

[Unit]
Description=solarstorm.today MCP server
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/opt/solarstorm-mcp
Environment=MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http
Environment=MCP_HOST=127.0.0.1
Environment=MCP_PORT=8765
ExecStart=/opt/solarstorm-mcp/venv/bin/python server.py
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl enable --now solarstorm-mcp
systemctl status solarstorm-mcp

nginx in front, on a subdomain with a TLS certificate:

server {
    server_name mcp.example.com;
    location /mcp {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_buffering off;
        proxy_read_timeout 3600s;
    }
    # + certbot TLS lines
}

One thing that bites people: the MCP SDK rejects requests whose Host header doesn't match what it expects (DNS-rebinding protection). If handshakes fail with a 4xx while the service itself is healthy, check what Host your proxy forwards.

How the numbers are derived

• Data sources. services.swpc.noaa.gov — planetary K-index and its forecast product, plus GOES primary 0.1–0.8 nm X-ray flux. 10-second timeout, no caching, no keys.
• Daily maxima are bucketed by Europe/Berlin calendar days, matching the site's German-language audience. Only observed-blank, estimated, and predicted points count toward forecasts.
• Flare classes convert X-ray flux to the standard A/B/C/M/X scale (X ≥ 1e-4 W/m², M ≥ 1e-5, and so on).
• Aurora thresholds are European-sector guide values for naked-eye visibility: Kp 1 above 66°, 3 above 62°, 4.5 above 58°, 6 above 55°, 7 above 52°, 8 above 48°, 9 above 44.5°. Below ~44.5° only extreme historical storms qualify. A camera typically catches aurora about one Kp level earlier than the eye does.
• Not modelled: the Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field. A southward Bz makes a given Kp far more productive, and it can't be forecast days ahead — treat verdicts as odds, not promises.

Related

• solarstorm.today — the site this mirrors (EN/DE)
• Aurora tonight — live map with the NOAA OVATION oval
• 3-day forecast
• About this MCP server

Tests

pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
pytest -m "not live"    # offline: parsing, thresholds, formatting
pytest -m live          # hits NOAA, asserts the live response contract

The offline suite runs on every push against Python 3.10–3.13. The live suite also runs daily on a schedule, because the one bug that reached production wasn't a logic error: NOAA's observed feed spells its key Kp while the forecast feed says kp, so valid 200 responses parsed to zero rows. Only a real call catches that kind of drift.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.