Participatory sensing utilized by an advanced meteorological nowcasting system

The increasing spread of high-capacity sensor-equipped mobile devices provides new possibilities for scientific ambit. Many possible applications have been made accessible in the recent past. In this paper, the benefit of mobile sensing data collection for science is presented, using as example the combination of algorithmic weather forecasting and user contributed observations associated with participatory sensing. The newly developed DLR winter weather nowcasting system WHITE for the Munich airport intends a close cooperation with users and it utilizes data collected by mobile devices for validation. For these purposes, a mobile web application has been developed and operated during a campaign in the winter of 2012/2013. The technical structure of the application and its performance during the campaign as well as the main features of the WHITE system are the basic components of this paper.