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How are you going to sense thunderstorms with a smartphone? Temperature / Barometric pressure changes? User input? Weather Underground has been doing the latter

How are you going to sense thunderstorms with a smartphone? Temperature / Barometric pressure changes? User input? Weather Underground has been doing the latter for a couple of years, although it doesn't seem to be altering their "current conditions" reporting yet: http://www.wunderground.com/about/pr/news.asp?date=20131121 http://www.wunderground.com/about/pr/news.asp?date=20131121 It's a great idea - I think there are a bunch of similar applications that could leverage phones like this.

cryptoz 12y ago
Thanks - I have about 400,000 barometers connected globally right now. Our data archive is about 1.5B measurements, we're getting about 5M per day. We will use this as the primary new input to WRF model runs, outputting high-res forecasts. The network I run is called PressureNet, you can see our website at http://pressurenet.io http://pressurenet.io or have a look at our flagship Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.cumulonimbus.barometernetwork https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.cumulonimbu... Early initial targets are large convective systems (like these) that are difficult to predict. Our dense barometer network should resolve them far better than other existing networks. We also do Current Conditions like WU, but that idea needs a lot of work before anyone makes a valuable product on it alone. Typically those readings are used to validate and tweak models, not make forecasts. Other sensors that will prove useful: cell signal strength, thermometer, humidity, UV sensor, ambient light sensor, etc. And yes, there are lots of other uses! Like earthquake mapping and alerting, I wrote a blog post mentioning some ideas and the importance for the code to be open source: http://www.jacobsheehy.com/2014/02/open-source-software-is-important-for-modern-science/ http://www.jacobsheehy.com/2014/02/open-source-software-is-i...

cryptoz 12y ago

Thanks - I have about 400,000 barometers connected globally right now. Our data archive is about 1.5B measurements, we're getting about 5M per day. We will use this as the primary new input to WRF model runs, outputting high-res forecasts. The network I run is called PressureNet, you can see our website at http://pressurenet.io http://pressurenet.io or have a look at our flagship Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.cumulonimbus.barometernetwork https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.cumulonimbu... Early initial targets are large convective systems (like these) that are difficult to predict. Our dense barometer network should resolve them far better than other existing networks. We also do Current Conditions like WU, but that idea needs a lot of work before anyone makes a valuable product on it alone. Typically those readings are used to validate and tweak models, not make forecasts. Other sensors that will prove useful: cell signal strength, thermometer, humidity, UV sensor, ambient light sensor, etc. And yes, there are lots of other uses! Like earthquake mapping and alerting, I wrote a blog post mentioning some ideas and the importance for the code to be open source: http://www.jacobsheehy.com/2014/02/open-source-software-is-important-for-modern-science/ http://www.jacobsheehy.com/2014/02/open-source-software-is-i...