Ventusky Wants To Be The Most Advanced Meteorological Application For iOS

These weeks saw the release of a major update to the Ventusky application, which visualizes meteorological data on a 3D globe. The application now displays meteorological fronts on a map. It uses neural networks to calculate them. It is the first application in the world that shows a model-based frontal system forecast for the entire world (regularly, the frontal systems' forecast is made manually and only for a limited area). The weather front forecast is important and brings users information about wind, temperature, or visibility changes. It provides a better understanding of what is happening in the atmosphere.

Figure 1: Example of the application with fronts forecast shown

The application also offers sea and ocean temperature forecasts for up to a week. It also displays sea currents (their speed and direction). This allows you to monitor, for example, the warming effect of the Gulf Stream or the expected development of the seawater temperature.

Other new features include a layer showing how expected temperatures differ from the long-term average, which is based on data from 1980 to 2020. On the Ventusky, the long-term averages are calculated based on the reanalysis of the ECMWF model. The orange to red colors represent above-average temperatures, and the blue to purple colors represent below-average temperatures. The new layer will allow for better monitoring of global warming and temperature variations around the world.

The application shows the expected path of the tropical cyclones. This allows the user to quickly see if a given hurricane or typhoon is expected to hit their area in the coming days. In addition, the user can compare the forecasts from several models and see how they differ.

The objective of the Ventusky project rests in offering highly accurate weather information worldwide. Visitors get access to data that only a few years ago was available exclusively to meteorologists. The application displays more than 50 meteorological maps and offers several widgets, radar and satellite data, and more than 10 meteorological models from around the world.