The OpenWeather smartphone app collects temperature, humidity and air pressure information from users around the world to track weather conditions in real time. Right now, the app is only available on Android smartphones. Image credit: American Geophysical Union.
Smartphones are a great way to check in on the latest weather predictions, but new research aims to use the batteries in those same smartphones to predict the weather.
A group of smartphone app developers and weather experts created a way to use the temperature sensors built into smartphone batteries to crowdsource weather information. These tiny thermometers usually prevent smartphones from dangerously overheating, but the researchers discovered the battery temperatures tell a story about the environment around them.
Crowdsourcing hundreds of thousands of smartphone temperature readings from phones running the popular OpenSignal Android app, the team estimated daily average temperatures for eight major cities around the world. After calibration, the team calculated air temperatures within an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of the actual value, which should improve as more users join the system.
While each of the cities already has established weather stations, according to the new method’s creators it could one day make predictions possible at a much finer scale of time and space than is currently feasible. Whereas today, weather reports typically provide one temperature for an entire city and a handful of readings expected throughout a day, the technique could lead to continuously updated weather predictions at a city block resolution.
“The ultimate end is to be able to do things we’ve never been able to do before in meteorology and give those really short-term and localized predictions,” said James Robinson, co-founder of London-based app developer OpenSignal that discovered the method. “In London you can go from bright and sunny to cloudy in just a matter of minutes. We’d hope someone would be able to decide when to leave their office to get the best weather for their lunch break.”
The work was published today in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
Smartphone sensors
Robinson’s OpenSignal app collects information voluntarily sent from users’ phones to build accurate maps of cellphone coverage and Wi-Fi access points. The app boasts about 700,000 active users according to Robinson, about 90 percent of which opt in to providing statistics collected by their phones.
Robinson originally wondered whether smartphones running on newer, 4G networks ran hotter than those running on older networks. When no difference showed up, he looked for other potential uses of the temperature information available on Android-powered devices.
“Just sort of for fun we started looking to see if there was a correlation with anything else,” said Robinson. “We got some London weather data for comparison and found the two sets of temperatures were offset, but they had the same sort of shape.”
While OpenSignal is available to iPhone and iPad users, the temperature readings on those devices are not accessible like on their Android counterparts.
Cellphone thermometers
After finding the correlation between smartphone and air temperatures in London, Robinson and his fellow developers assembled temperature data from other major cities where they had a large number of users. Comparing data from Los Angeles, Paris, Mexico City, Moscow, Rome, San Paulo and Buenos Aires, Argentina, they saw the same link between the two sets of temperatures they saw in London.
“It was amazing how easily the correlation sort of popped out,” said Robinson. “We didn’t do any handpicking of data—it sort of just emerged.”
A smartphone’s environment affects its temperature, according to Robinson. On a sweltering day, a cell phone tucked in a pocket will be hotter than the same cell phone on an icy day. Weather experts helped Robinson develop a way to calculate outdoor temperatures from smartphone battery temperatures, the latter of which are typically hotter.
However, other factors unrelated to the outdoor weather can play a role. A phone outdoors running the latest 3-D game could run at 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) while the same phone idling in an air-conditioned building nearby could be only running at 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit).
To avoid fluctuations in temperature unrelated to the real outdoor temperature, Robinson needed large amounts of data. While an individual phone might not provide an accurate representation of the weather, combining the readings from hundreds or thousands of phones together gives a more truthful overall picture. Currently Robinson collects over half a million temperature readings each day from users of his OpenWeather app. He said he plans to make the data freely available to academic researchers.
““There’s the wider promise when logging all this information that there will be something really interesting you can understand,” said Robinson. “The most obvious application is climate and weather tracking.”
The Latest Bing News on:
Crowdsourcing weather
- United Way weather fund assistance availableon April 9, 2021 at 5:01 pm
With some Bell County families still impacted by Winter Storm Uri, United Way of Central Texas has remained active in its recovery efforts.
- A troll contest to spread health awarenesson April 8, 2021 at 9:03 pm
Kochi: On the occasion of World Health Day on April 7, the district medical office and National Health Mission (NHM), Ernakulam, has launched a troll making competition in Ernakulam district to ...
- As Locusts Swarmed East Africa, This Tech Helped Squash Themon April 8, 2021 at 6:54 am
A hastily formed crowdsourcing operation to contain the ... countries that had not seen locusts in decades, fueled by unusual weather connected to climate change. Kenya had last dealt with a ...
- Dr. Shay Har-Noy Joins Spire as General Manager of Aviationon April 7, 2021 at 5:00 am
"Spire’s aviation business is providing comprehensive air traffic and weather data to problem ... a company that combined crowdsourcing and machine learning to create new applications for ...
- Where Can I Fly My Drone? Understanding the No Fly Zoneon April 5, 2021 at 5:00 pm
Thanks to crowdsourcing, the app updates regularly with new information ... and mashes that up with real-time weather, so even if you can fly legally, it might be windy and rainy, and well, the wind ...
- What do you wonder about Miami and the Sunshine State? Curious305 will investigate.on April 5, 2021 at 11:37 am
The crowdsourcing project is just one way we’re working to involve you, our readers, in our journalism. Here’s how Curious305 works: You send us a question and our journalists research and rep ...
- NASA Crowdsources with Shoshin Works and HeroX to Future-scape Aviationon April 2, 2021 at 10:14 am
Shoshin Works, global leaders in ecosystem operations, and HeroX, the social network for innovation and the world's leading platform for crowdsourced solutions, today launched the crowdsourcing ...
- NASA Crowdsources with Shoshin Works and HeroX to Future-scape Aviationon April 2, 2021 at 6:43 am
HeroX is a social network for crowdsourcing innovation and human ingenuity, co-founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneur, Christian Cotichini and XPRIZE Founder and Futurist, Peter Diamandis.
- Danvers Trio Hopes 'The Crypt' Will Be A Bloody Good Salem Spoton April 1, 2021 at 3:36 pm
SALEM, MA — Dining out in Salem could soon be a horror show if Cailee Holmes and her business partners have anything to say about it. A veteran of the restaurant business, Holmes said she long ...
- Tybee encourages public input for computer app that studies coastal flood hazardson March 31, 2021 at 2:07 pm
Tybee officials want the public’s help in building the island’s resiliency against impacts from climate change-related sea level rise.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Crowdsourcing weather
The Latest Bing News on:
Predict the weather
- These maps show what to expect from the nor’easter Thursday night into Fridayon April 15, 2021 at 8:46 am
If you live in central or western Massachusetts, here's how much snow you can expect Thursday night into Friday, according to forecasters.
- Cool, cool summer? Farmer's Almanac, National Weather Service differ on summer weather predictions for Iowaon April 15, 2021 at 8:13 am
The Farmers' Almanac says we should expect the summer to be "cooler and drier than normal." However, National Weather Service predicts higher temperatures.
- The Humble Shrub That’s Predicting a Terrible Fire Seasonon April 15, 2021 at 4:00 am
When fire scientists want to know how flammable the state’s vegetation might be, they don’t rely on some newfangled gadget. They rely on chamise. “It's a really pretty and kind of understated shrub,” ...
- Crop response to El Niño-Southern Oscillation related weather variation to help farmers manage their cropson April 15, 2021 at 2:57 am
Although weather is a major driver of crop yield, many farmers don’t know in advance how the weather will vary nor how their crops will respond. We hypothesized that where El Niño-Southern Oscillation ...
- Forget the weather man, 'matumbo' can predict death, strange diseases, sunny or rainy dayson April 15, 2021 at 1:12 am
In these regions, one can predict calamities, ranging from death, strange diseases and how the weather pattern will turn out just by examining animal intestines. In Turkana community, the ‘reading and ...
- SAS analysis helps Malala Fund predict impact of climate change on girls' educationon April 15, 2021 at 1:03 am
Incorporated as an extension of Malala Fund's annual Girls' Education Challenges Index, the Girls' Education and Climate Challenges Index predicts, by, year, which countries are at most risk of girls' ...
- What tools do meteorologists use to forecast the weather?on April 13, 2021 at 6:22 am
My question for you is-- what is your favorite tool to help predict the weather?" Meteorologists use various tools to help forecast the weather. This includes satellites that orbit the globe and feed ...
- Weather: Predicting the unpredictableon April 12, 2021 at 5:00 pm
From dust to lightning, the 407th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron Weather Flight ensures all personnel and coalition partners are aware of the local weather and can prepare accordingly. The ...
- Weather forecasts that predict meningitis outbreakson April 12, 2021 at 7:20 am
Scientists are using weather forecasts to predict the location and scale of impending meningitis outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa.
- The Atlantic Hurricane Season Will Be More Active Than Usual, Forecasters Predicton April 9, 2021 at 8:10 am
The beautiful weather, longer days, and all the outdoor activities ... with winds 115 mph or higher.) Based on these predictions and previous data, the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season will be more ...