Enhancing and Educating with the WxSat Mobile App Kyle A. Nelson1 and Margaret Mooney2

Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), University of Wisconsin-Madison

Contact Information: 1wxkylenelson@gmail.com 2margaret.mooney@ssec.wisc.edu

I. Vision and Proposal With ease of access to satellite imagery online and its display increasingly often in local and national TV weather segments, interest is growing. If we are to become a more Weather Ready Nation, it is critical to enhance the weather literacy of the general public, weather enthusiasts and decision-makers worldwide who view satellite and other earth data products and use them to make informed decisions. For this FUNding Friday project, I set out to achieve two goals: 1.  to enhance the free WxSat mobile app to add selectable IR and WV color table

enhancements in addition to the black and white Visible, IR and WV imagery. 2.  Add a tutorial for Visible, IR and WV imagery with static annotated images to highlight

examples of features often seen in these imagery types and to aid the user in better interpreting what the image is showing and how it relates to them at ground level.

III. Web Map Service and RealEarth V. WxSat: Now More Powerful Than Ever Before

II. WxSat App: A Starting Point

VI. Future Collaborations for SSEC RealEarth IV. Product Information Pages – An Educational Component

VIII. Release Information •  Expect upgraded WxSat release in Early 2015; The upgrade will be FREE! •  Current WxSat users will receive an upgrade notification in their App Store

What is WMS? •  OGC-compliant method for serving geo-referenced images & data to different client types

•  OGC = Open Geospatial Consortium

What is RealEarth? •  A distributable framework for ingesting and managing geospatial data for serving to a

variety of clients: •  Tile services: Google Maps, iOS App, Android App •  GIS software; KML (Google Earth); THREDDS (data discovery)

•  Provides an environment to scientists and researchers to upload data: geolocated images, products, and observations

•  Facilitates research by providing the ability to animate through time, layer time-matched

data, and probe interactively. •  Enables visualization of data via web browsers, GIS tools, and mobile device apps •  Helps outreach activities by making it easy for anyone to view the products in a

webpage or on phones and tablets. •  Shares results and displays through unique URLs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to allow other

researchers and the public to view these products in near real-time

Technical Overview •  Ingest: Many formats (PROJ4); Simple HTTP upload •  Management: Metadata; Arbitrary product size •  Serving:

•  Tiles: Rectangles of partial images •  Shapes: Plots of data values •  Data probes: Pop up windows of additional information at specific location

•  Architecture: 8GB Linux Virtual Machine using HTTP for all access •  Proxy to Other VMs

•  Proxy collects and combines information (tiles, shapes, metadata, etc) from the appropriate host and returns the result to the client

•  The curation of 25 mobile-friendly product information web pages establishes the WxSat app and reaffirms SSEC RealEarth as educational earth science data viewers.

•  The information pages provide users with a qualitative explanation of the product being viewed, using plain language so that readers will not be bombarded by jargon and acronyms commonly used in the atmospheric sciences

•  Pages are accessed via the “I” or information icon in RealEarth and WxSat •  A pop-up info window (RealEarth) or an external web page (WxSat) will display the info

• GOES-R derived products • Wildfire detection • Lightning detection • Cloud properties • Clear sky mask • Rain rate • Etc… (http://www.goes-r.gov/products/baseline.html)

• DOT • Winter road conditions across state lines

• Pilot Training System

• Flight basemaps • NOTAMs, SIGMETS, etc.

• Custom App Versions • Easier Product Navigation • Narrow Focus

Special Thanks: •  Margaret Mooney for her guidance and mentorship on this project •  ESIP Education Committee for a phenominal year as a Student Fellow•  FUNding Friday awards committee and donators for project funding•  Dave Parker, SSEC Primary Architect and Programmer, for his coding expertise•  Tommy Jasmin, SSEC Systems Developer, for his programming expertise•  Erik Gould for design and curation of product information pages

VII. Access SSEC RealEarth and Download WxSat now!

SSEC RealEarth (http://re.ssec.wisc.edu)

WxSat – Apple iOS WxSat - Android

Cleaner display

Custom layering Create favorites Explore!

More configurable More products

•  Available for iOS and Android •  Features

•  Global Visible, Infrared and Water Vapor images •  6-hour imagery loops •  Leverages RealEarth Map Service •  Expandable

By expanding the available datasets beyond the original Visible, Infrared and Water Vapor satellite imagery, WxSat becomes a powerful and robust real-time weather analysis and case study tool for the public, scientists and decision makers.