SURFACE PRESSURE OBSERVATIONS FROM SMARTPHONES: A Potential Revolution for High-Resolution Weather Prediction?

Millions of smartphones possess relatively accurate pressure sensors and the expectation is that these numbers will grow into the hundreds of millions globally during the next few years. The availability of millions of pressure observations each hour from smartphones has major implications for high-resolution numerical weather prediction. This paper reviews smartphone pressure-sensor technology, describes commercial efforts to collect the data in real time, examines the implications for mesoscale weather prediction, and provides an example of assimilating smartphone pressure observations for a strong convective event over eastern Washington State.