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Barometers In iPhones Mean More Crowdsourcing In Weather Forecasts

Posted by timothy on Monday October 20, 2014 @05:38AM from the under-pressure dept.

cryptoz (878581) writes Apple is now adding barometers to its mobile devices: both new iPhones have valuable atmospheric pressure sensors being used for HealthKit (step counting). Since many Android devices have been carrying barometers for years, scientists like Cliff Mass have been using the sensor data to improve weather forecasts. Open source data collection projects like PressureNet on Android automatically collect and send the atmospheric sensor data to researchers.

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High frequency pressure waves by nadaou · 2014-10-20 06:26 · Score: 4, Interesting

If you get the chance to monitor the barometer at high frequency there are a couple neat atmospheric phenomena which you can observe.
The shockwaves which preceed an oncoming strong front or thunderstorm are especially cool to watch.

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~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.
Re:What for? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-20 06:43 · Score: 5, Interesting

It can help GPS fixes be acquired faster. Barometers provide a rough estimate of altitude and can aid GPS fixes. See https://plus.google.com/+DanMorrill/posts/jVJhPyouWDP