Satellite imagery is becoming more prevalent in our daily lives. With ease of access 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 project, the free WxSat mobile app is modified and enhanced to include the full product suite available in the Space Science and Engineering Center’s (SSEC) RealEarth web interface, and new features such as the ability to layer multiple products, save favorites with custom view locations and times, view information about individual products and more. By expanding the available datasets beyond the original Visible, Infrared and Water Vapor satellite imagery, WxSat becomes a more powerful and robust real-time weather analysis and case study tool for the public, scientists and decision makers.
The curation of 25 mobile-friendly product information web pages for the most frequently accessed datasets establishes the WxSat app and SSEC RealEarth as educational earth science data viewers. The information pages provide users with a qualitative explanation of the product being viewed, empowering them to more accurately interpret what they see on the screen and infer what effects may be experienced at ground level. Product descriptions are written using plain language so that readers will not be bombarded by jargon and acronyms commonly used in the atmospheric sciences. Instead, they will be graced with a scientifically sound description that is readily applied to the dataset they are viewing. Product pages for visible, infrared and water vapor imagery include annotated images to provide a visual conceptual model for the user to apply when viewing these satellite imagery products in real time via WxSat, SSEC RealEarth or another source.
The enhanced WxSat app will make earth science data more readily available to everyone via mobile devices, allowing them to have realtime weather information in the palm of their hand. Carefully crafted product information pages will aid in building a more Weather Ready Nation through enhancing the weather literacy of the general public, weather enthusiasts and decision-makers worldwide who view satellite and other earth data products via WxSat and SSEC RealEarth
 | Name: Kyle Nelson Organization(s): University of Wisconsin Madison Email: [email protected] |
 | Name: Margaret Mooney Organization(s): CIMSS ,SSEC ,University of Wisconsin Madison |