2 ms·
Show HN: Heliosinger – The Sun Sings Real-Time Space Weather
Hey everyone! I've been captured by the recent solar storms like the rest of the internet, so I dug up a project I've been working on for a while.
I built Heliosinger — it's a project that gives the sun a "singing voice" in real-time. I'm a trumpet player and classical vocalist, so my goal was to make the musical choices very intentional, not just random beeps.
Here's a rough idea of how the mapping works:
- Pitch = Solar Wind Velocity
- Vowels (ee/ah/oo) = Plasma Density + Temperature (using formant synthesis)
- Rhythm/Tremolo = Kp Index (geomagnetic activity)
- Harmony (Major/Minor) = Plasma Temperature + Magnetic Field (Bz)
Technical details:
Built with Web Audio API (custom formant filters for vowel synthesis)
Real-time data from NOAA DSCOVR and SWPC (updates every 15-60 seconds based on activity)
React + TypeScript + Vite
Deployed on Cloudflare Pages
No tracking, no analytics, fully client-side
Try it: https://heliosinger.com https://heliosinger.com
The code is open source: https://github.com/Shannon-Labs/heliosinger https://github.com/Shannon-Labs/heliosinger
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the sonification mapping and any ideas for improvements! We might hear some crazy sounds tonight!!