
Show HN: Epic Sunset/Sunrise Prediction - hongzi
https://crispysky.com/
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hongzi
I'm a hobbyist landscape photographer. There have been too many times I missed
the chance of going out for stunning sunset/sunrise. An accurate notification
of epic sky would have helped me plan ahead much better.

So during the pandemic I wrote a python program. The pipeline is to (1)
download daily cloud formation data from NOAA
([https://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/products/nam/);](https://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/products/nam/\);)
(2) get a minute level extrapolation (NAM only has hourly prediction); (3) use
a physical model to get the sun location and calculate the cloud color based
on Rayleigh scattering
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering);](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering\);)
(4) visualize the sunset/sunrise color on matplotlib Basemap; and (5) send out
an email notification when the cloud is colorful enough for long enough.

Me and friends tested it for the summer and it was pretty accurate (good true
positive). Some photos we got are in
[https://crispysky.com/#demo](https://crispysky.com/#demo)

It turns out the entire calculation for the US continent was pretty fast (each
tile on the map can run the computation in parallel). After downloading the
data from NOAA, serving the notification for me and my friends or serving
thousands of people should almost cost the same. So I wrote this simple
website to share the service :) The viewing experience is optimized for
desktop users for now.

It's a small web service for fun but I would love to learn what you think we
can further improve, for this website and for data-driven photography in
general. Thanks!

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mceachen
Really nice idea. Tomorrow is "self promotion Sunday" on /r/photography, I'd
bet redditors there would appreciate this.

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hongzi
Thanks a lot for the suggestion!

