Android Skew-t app

Hi All,

As a recently licensed pilot I decided it would be a good idea to learn more about soaring weather prediction, specifically the workings of a Skew-t graph.

I combined that with learning more about developing Apps for Android, so yesterday I published by first Android App.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...=com.ajw.skewt

I hope many of you find this useful.

I welcome your suggestions for improvements. As I said, this is new to me.

Enjoy.

Alan

Is this based on RAOBs only? Any way to include forecast soundings for those of us who dont live near a.weather balloon?

I like the presentation at first glance

On Thursday, March 27, 2014 11:13:37 AM UTC-6, Tony wrote:
Is this based on RAOBs only? Any way to include forecast soundings for those of us who dont live near a.weather balloon?


I'm happy to make changes that are needed.

The app uses the default settings from http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/, setting the time and the airport code. This means the default source is Op40.

Oh OK that's alright.

Cool.
It currently is not displaying numbers in the airport ID.
Perhaps a "pro" version could include the ability to input Lat/Lon with a couple of user-created shortcuts?
Nice job,
Jim

On Thursday, March 27, 2014 12:27:35 PM UTC-6, JS wrote:
Cool.

It currently is not displaying numbers in the airport ID.

Perhaps a "pro" version could include the ability to input Lat/Lon with a couple of user-created shortcuts?

Nice job,

Jim

My validation code is stripping the number. I will add some Lat/Long validation so either will work.

On Thursday, March 27, 2014 1:19:20 PM UTC-6, kiwiindenver wrote:
On Thursday, March 27, 2014 12:27:35 PM UTC-6, JS wrote:

Cool.



It currently is not displaying numbers in the airport ID.



Perhaps a "pro" version could include the ability to input Lat/Lon with a couple of user-created shortcuts?



Nice job,



Jim



My validation code is stripping the number. I will add some Lat/Long validation so either will work.

I have just published a new version that has initial support for Lat/Long. I will improve this later. This version is a quick fix to get people up and running and hence help get more feedback.

For now, enter a comma separated pair of decimal lat/long using negative for South and West. This is the same way you enter lat/long into the NOAA site.

PS. It may take a few hours to push this version through the Google servers.

Sweet. Being able to save and name "favorite" locations would be great.

It seems like there is some round up on the ground elevation? When I put KHUT, Hutchinson, KS, in it has the base altitude at 2000 ft when it should be more like 1600.

Also looks like the default time is 8 am to 7 pm. That's OK but I think by this time of the day the Op40 should be able to forecast to tomorrow morning which would be nice. Perhaps you could have it start at 8 am of the current day and go out as far as the forecast is available?

Next of course will be to include the other models...

I really like this presentation and thinking will come in really handy.

On Thursday, March 27, 2014 6:12:02 PM UTC-6, Tony wrote:
Sweet. Being able to save and name "favorite" locations would be great.



It seems like there is some round up on the ground elevation? When I put KHUT, Hutchinson, KS, in it has the base altitude at 2000 ft when it should be more like 1600.



Also looks like the default time is 8 am to 7 pm. That's OK but I think by this time of the day the Op40 should be able to forecast to tomorrow morning which would be nice. Perhaps you could have it start at 8 am of the current day and go out as far as the forecast is available?



Next of course will be to include the other models...



I really like this presentation and thinking will come in really handy.

Thanks for that feedback. I'll take a look at those problems.

Your right about the time, I set those limits thinking it would easily cover most soaring needs. I'll do some more investigation to see what data is available for download.

How many favourites do you think you would want? How many would you use regularly? How many would you use once in a blue moon?

How important are the other models? Would this be a set & forget item or something you change regularly?

This is a very worthwhile effort. I get a very readable graph if I turn my Nexus 7 horizontally, set 'low altitude display' and zoom in 2X. That makes the fonts big enough to read easily and displays the altitude of interest (up to about 10K for me). And it allows me to see the wind speed graph at the same time.

The 'time warp' slider is informative and helps to get a feel for how conditions change through the day.

Here are some not necessarily good ideas off the top of my head:

It might be useful to have the option to set surface temperature automatically based on forecast.

For eastern pilots,it might be useful to have the option to display the data to top of 10K, but only if you also had the option to choose a larger font.