9B.4
Sparking Awareness of Lightning: New Mobile Tools and New Ways to Communicate Lightning Danger

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Thursday, 6 February 2014: 9:15 AM
Room C105 (The Georgia World Congress Center )
Amena Ali, Earth Networks, Germantown, MD; and D. Chai

It's a well-known fact that mobile devices are quickly eclipsing the PC. With continuing growth in tablets, the launch of digital wallets, and people actually sleeping and waking up with their smartphones, mobile computing is poised to move into wearable devices, integrate with the TV, and even appearing in the cars we drive. How can this pervasive delivery medium, reaching over 1.5 billion worldwide, be used to better communicate impending weather danger? We'll examine new opportunities for public safety when advanced sensor networks, big data and location-based services on smartphones come together. What if total lightning data, detected in real-time, could be compared to people's location at that very moment (as evidenced by their smartphone GPS), such that lightning proximity info could be delivered in a geo-targeted manner? How do you bring to life real-time lightning data in a compelling user experience and interface to effectively communicate dangerous lightning? Earth Networks will discuss its new Spark lightning proximity alerts available within WeatherBug apps. Customer feedback and increased lightning safety awareness will be shared.