mPing 4+
University of Oklahoma (Information Technology)
-
- Free
Screenshots
Description
The NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory and The University of Oklahoma's Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies needs your help with severe weather research!
The Meteorological Phenomena Identification Near the Ground project (mPING) needs you, the Citizen Scientist, to watch and report on precipitation.
mPING is looking for volunteers of all ages and backgrounds to make observations - teachers, classes, families, everyone, and anyone! This app is your portal for providing observations to researchers at NSSL. Your reports will help them develop and refine algorithms that use the newly upgraded dual-polarization NEXRAD radars to detect and report on the type of precipitation that you see falling. To do a good job, we need tens of thousands of observations from all over the US. We can succeed only with your help.
mPING volunteer observers can spend as much time as they want, from a little to a lot, making observations. The basic idea is simple: NSSL will collect radar data from NEXRAD radars in your area along with sounding data from our models during storm events, and use your data to develop and validate new and better algorithms. We have two focus areas: winter precipitation types, such as rain, freezing rain, drizzle, freezing drizzle, snow, graupel, ice pellets, mixed rain and snow, mixed ice pellets and snow and even observations of “none” when the precipitation has stopped, even if only briefly.
Why? Because the radars cannot see close to the ground at far distances and because automated surface sensors are only at airports. But the people affected by winter weather are everywhere so we need you to tell us what is happening where you are.
But we need more than winter weather details: when there are thunderstorms, we need to know if hail falls and, if it does, how big it is. Measuring with a ruler is best but, whatever you do, stay safe.
All you need to do is use this app to select the precipitation type. Tell us what is hitting the ground. NSSL scientists will compare your report with what the radar has detected and what our models think the atmosphere is doing, and use it to develop new technologies and techniques to determine what kind of precipitation such as snow, ice, rain or hail and its size is falling where.
What’s New
Version 2.2.2
- Enhanced user experience
- Bug fixes
Ratings and Reviews
Please add Lightning/Thunder reporting option
It's nice to see that mobile "crowd-sourced" weather reporting still exists given that other popular wx apps like Accuweather and Weather Underground actually did have their own crowd wx reporting features on them back during the 2010s, but somehow..., just disappeared with newer updates going into the 2020s.
I see that this mPing app has been around 10 years now for that same ability for just as long as they were in the mentioned wx apps. But, if you're going to pretty much include all kinds of weather reporting types (like blowing dust and tornado that have absolutely NOTHING to do with precipitation type observation reporting as I see is the main intent of this app project), you seriously need to add a lightning or thunder option because it also can still be used for archival and research verification purposes especially when a cell is in the developing/dissipating stages. And more importantly here for the statement of the app, lightning itself IS also a meteorological phenomena, and at the surface.
I don't know why lightning and its impact always tend to get thrown under the bus in the wx industry/media, but that's for another conversation elsewhere.
Developer Response ,
There's no need" trhe National Lightning Detection network provides location information for cloud-to-ground, intercloud and intracloud lightning.
Needs state highway numbers for “view reports”
So far the app seems to be a great tool for travelers...my only complaint (I haven’t been able to locate a “contact or comment section) is it will tell you street names but highway and interstate numbers are not visible on the view reports part of it. When using maps gps it’s hard to coordinate a good route to take without this key piece of information. I anticipate an update that will include this info and make this a 5 Star app for travelers unfamiliar with the area they are in!
Fun App & maybe helpful too?
I got this app with my iPhone 4G and kept using it now with the 5s. There are times I want to report "just barely barely teeny tiny rain" as opposed to the "driving hard gully-washing toad-stranger" types of descriptions. But you science types don't seem to need the quantity... Oh and I miss that map where I could see where else weather was reported (especially when we get those big storms that cover two or three states - like KS & MO or OK & KS etc. I realize the east coast has states that are smaller then some of our counties...).
App Privacy
The developer, University of Oklahoma (Information Technology), has not provided details about its privacy practices and handling of data to Apple. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
No Details Provided
The developer will be required to provide privacy details when they submit their next app update.
Information
- Seller
- University of Oklahoma (Information Technology)
- Size
- 9.6 MB
- Category
- Education
- Compatibility
-
- iPhone
- Requires iOS 12.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 12.0 or later.
- iPod touch
- Requires iOS 12.0 or later.
- Languages
-
English, Dutch, Estonian, French, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © University of Oklahoma
- Price
- Free