Android App Could Help Scientists Predict The Weather

Nancy Gohring | Wired | January 8, 2013

The Android phone in your pocket could help scientists do a better job of predicting the weather -- exactly where you are.

Atmospheric scientists are working with an app developer to take air pressure information that is already being collected from thousands of Android phones and feed it into sophisticated new climate models. If they get enough buy-in from Android owners, you may be able to receive warning hours in advance about thunderstorms and tornadoes coming to your precise location with far more certainty than you can today.

"The first I heard about these [Android] pressure sensors I said, 'Oh my god, this could be a huge game changer,'" said Cliff Mass, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington. "My vision is someone needs to collect all these observations across the country -- we could have a million an hour -- and use that to radically improve weather prediction."