As the competition in the smartphone market has grown over the years the technology features in the smartphones have become much more powerful. These days we can see sensors like temperature, barometer, altimeter and even fingerprints on latest smartphones. Most likely the average user will never use any of these sensors extensively. Few of the most useful sensors are the temperature, barometer, magnetometer, and the GPS sensor. All this combined together can reflect the temperature of the given area. WeatherSignal is an app which tries to crowdsource weather data from the sensor and combine them to create an approximate weather report of that area. Combined with hundreds of users around the world, this can give an excellent view of real-time weather status around the world.
The crowdsourced weather data contributes scientists where expensive weather measuring instruments are lacking like our country Nepal. While smartphones and internet are available in most place of Nepal, we still lack proper weather forcasting resources.
Weather signal is a product from Opensignal Inc which tries to improve weather forecasting with a crowd-sourced network of smartphone sensors. Smartphones collect various readings from the sensors which are immensely important for weather forecasting. With the data saved from hundreds of smartphone sensors, the open signal compiled all the data and creates a worldwide weather map that is available on whethersignal.com.
The weather signal app is available both for iPhone and Android devices. But your smartphone device must have necessary sensors. This includes barometer, temperature, GPS and be able to gather sensor information and upload it to weather signal service. The application is really easy to use once it is set up. After you’ve downloaded the application from the App Store, go to the settings and set up the duration in between which it gathers the information. After that, the app will automatically upload data within the duration and will merge with other readings from nearby devices to create an approximate weather report.
The first screen on your Android device after you sell them for the signal app will give you an overview of all the readings from the sensor on your device. On the second screen, there is a world map that you can navigate to view the report submitted by other users throughout the world. The third screen on the device allows you do something a basic report about your surrounding like whether it is raining at the moment.
So if you want to help out and become part of the world’s most ambitious weather crowdsourcing project. The data you share is being used by atmospheric scientists worldwide to improve forecasting and there’s not much you should do than install the app and let it run.
