IBM is hoping that mobile barometric sensors from individuals opting in, supercomputing ,and the Internet of Things can make weather forecasting more local globally.
Big Blue, which owns The Weather Company, will outline the IBM Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting System (GRAF). GRAF incorporates IoT data in its weather models via crowdsourcing.
While hyper local weather forecasts are available in the US, Japan, and some parts of Western Europe, many regions in the world lack an accurate picture of weather.
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Mary Glackin, senior vice president of The Weather Company, said the company is "trying to fill in the blanks." She added, "In a place like India, weather stations are kilometers away. We think this can be as significant as bringing satellite data into models."
For instance, the developing world gets forecasts based on global data that are updated every 6 hours and resolutions at 10km to 15km. By using GRAF, IBM said it can offer forecasts for the day ahead that are updated hourly on average and have a 3km resolution.
What's in it for IBM? Weather data impacts everything from the supply chain to manufacturing to a bevy of industries. Weather forecasting focuses on storms and big events, but GRAF aims to forecast the smaller events such as thunderstorms. IBM's move to broaden crowdsourced weather data as a Los Angeles lawsuit alleges that the company misused tracking data from its weather apps. IBM maintains that customers opted in to sharing location and sensor data.
Ultimately, Glackin said data from automobiles, buildings, and wearables could add data to weather forecasting models. IBM's supercomputers can also make inferences from Internet of Things data. For instance, if connected cars are running windshield wipers in a location, the models could infer there's rain. "We still need a national weather system, but it doesn't have the scale for fine tuned forecasts," said Glacklin.
Among the key points:
The forecasts would be available on The Weather Channel app and site as well as Weather Underground's app and site.