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Rain Drops Signal Cell Phones

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the re-using-technology dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Signals from mobile phone masts have been used to measure rainfall patterns in Israel, scientists report. From the BBC article: 'The University of Tel-Aviv analyzed information routinely collected by mobile networks and say their technique is more accurate than current methods used by meteorological services. The data is a by-product of mobile network operators' need to monitor signal strength. If bad weather causes a signal to drop, an automatic system analyzing the data boosts the signal to make sure that people can still use their mobile phones. The amount of reduction in signal strength gave the researchers an indication of how much rain had fallen.'"

6 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. what was that? by celardore · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sorry what was that? The signals patchy, with some sunny spells towards the afternoon...

  2. Headline? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is it just me, or are the headlines for some articles just downright incomprehensible?

    What does "Rain Drops Signal Cell Phones" actually mean? Are individual raindrops sending signals to cell phones? Did they actually mean that rain drops (degrades) cell phone signals? No, apparently they meant that cell phone signals can detect rain drops... and unless my ability to parse english is somewhat broken, the headline simply doesn't say that.

    I wouldn't mention this if it didn't happen at least once a week. I'm forced to spend a good ten seconds in a state of frustrated confusion as my brain struggles to comprehend absolute gibberish.

    1. Re:Headline? by Elemenope · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's why I generally don't bother anymore. I just skip to the synopsis, which, while often containing lies, damned lies, distortions, exaggerations, editorial, and occasionally even statistics, is usually nevertheless not gibberish. Why spend ten seconds confused when you could be spending twenty seconds disgusted?

      --
      All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
    2. Re:Headline? by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually, they meant "Fireplace Ladder Telephone Sandwich Tree".

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  3. The weatherman? by RealGrouchy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I always knew not to trust the weatherman, but you're telling me to trust the cell phone people now? I don't think I can handle *that*.

    - RG>

    --
    Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
  4. Re:turbo button for cell phone reception by Gordonjcp · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, there's an upper legal limit on effective transmitted power, but often a sector is run at lower power to reduce interference with neighbouring sectors.

    If you find you're getting a drop in signal due to rain fade, you can bump it up a bit. Most stuff uses ATPC (automatic transmit power control) so does it by itself, but you can get graphs off it with SNMP.