In between beaming internet to people in developing countries and sometimes passing for UFOs, Alphabet’s Loon balloons have been busy helping scientists study how our planet works. A team led by Stanford professor Aditi Sheshadri recently published a report on gravity waves, ripples created by gravity when it pushes down on air forced up into the Earth’s upper atmosphere. 

To compile their report, professor Sheshadri and her team used data that Alphabet’s Loon balloons collected over 6,811 separate 48-hour periods between 2014 and 2018. “This was just a very lucky thing because they weren’t collecting data for any scientific mission. But, incidentally, they happened to be measuring position and temperature and pressure,” the researcher told Stanford News. 

A Wear OS update rolling out this fall will bring improved performance and a new weather app. Today, Google announced that the next update will allow faster access to info and apps, more intuitive controls for managing watch modes and workouts, as well as a simplified pairing process.

These changes are thanks, in part, to CPU core improvements, which could allow your apps to open up to 20 percent faster. The updated Wear OS will also support Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Wear 4100 and 4100+ chips. According to 9to5Google, Mobvoi will release the first running watch with this chipset later this year.

Website access is still available after an indefinite extension, although embedded material no longer appears to be an option. Third-party apps using Dark Sky’s data have until the end of 2021 to transition to other services.

This isn’t the end for hyperlocal weather on Android. Accuweather and other titles can fill the gap. However, it is one less major choice — and you’ll eventually need to move to Apple devices if you’re determined to use Dark Sky for your rain and snow alerts.

Apple purchased one of the best weather apps in the business this spring, and unfortunately that meant Dark Sky pulled its Android app. If you haven’t already installed it, it’s gone from the Google Play Store, and the company initially informed subscribers they would lose access as of July 1st.

However, there is one last reprieve, as it’s extending service on Android until August 1st. That gives you another month to find a different weather app — we have some suggestions — or, switch platforms. Dark Sky’s hook has been its accurate “hyperlocal” weather data that could inform users just before it rained or snowed, and even if you switch apps, any that rely on its API will lose access at the end of 2021.

The ground and satellite components of that system are largely automated and generally immune to at least the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lars Peter Riishojgaard, Director, Earth System Branch in WMO’s Infrastructure Department believes that the impact of losing those aerial observations will still be “relatively modest.” However, he explained in a recent press release, “as the decrease in availability of aircraft weather observations continues and expands, we may expect a gradual decrease in reliability of the forecasts.”

“The same is true if the decrease in surface-based weather observations continues, in particular if the COVID-19 outbreak starts to more widely impact the ability of observers to do their job in large parts of the developing world. WMO will continue to monitor the situation, and the organization is working with its Members to mitigate the impact as much as possible,” he continued.

More immediate is the problem with the system’s aircraft-based sensors; primarily that they’re no longer in the sky, collecting vital ambient temperature, wind speed and direction readings. Aircraft rely on the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay program (AMDAR) to collect the necessary data using onboard sensors, process and transmit it to relay stations on the ground via radio or satellite link. 

“More than 3,500 commercial aircraft normally provide over 250 million observations per year,” a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesperson told Engadget. “Throughout the flight path… these aircraft provide pressure, temperature, wind speed and direction, and in some cases humidity.”

The COVID-19 crisis has severely curtailed the commercial air travel industry. According to FlightRadar24, commercial traffic declined by 4.1 percent year-over-year in February followed by a 21.6 percent YOY drop in March. We could potentially see an overall 8.9 percent reduction of global air traffic compared to last year, according to one Bloomberg analyst. 

“As of March 31, the daily output of meteorological data from U.S. commercial aircraft has decreased to approximately half of normal levels,” the NOAA rep continued. They were also quick to point out that “even though a decrease in this critical data will possibly negatively impact forecast model skill, it does not necessarily translate into a reduction in forecast accuracy since National Weather Service meteorologists use an entire suite of observations and guidance to produce an actual forecast.”

However, a 2017 study conducted by NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory suggests that including aircraft-based data reduces six-hour forecast errors in wind, humidity and temperature by up to 30 percent in the Rapid Refresh (RAP) model for North America. As such, “we would expect some decrease in skill at least in some specific situations from the [current] decline in aircraft data volume,” Stanley Benjamin, the study’s co-author, told Weather.

A separate study conducted at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) found that eliminating aircraft data from their models reduced the accuracy of Northern Hemisphere jet-stream level forecasts by 15 percent and 3 percent for surface pressure. What’s more, as of February, the National Weather Service reports that it is only incorporating around 65 percent of the aircraft-based observations into the GSF model that it normally does. 

“We are anticipating the substantial reduction in the availability of US AMDAR data to continue over the coming weeks, likely to generate some measure of impact on the output of our numerical weather prediction systems,” Christopher Hill of the NOAA said in a March news release. That same release revealed that between March 3rd and March 23rd the number of aircraft reports over Europe received and used at the ECMWF dropped 35 percent with a 42 percent reduction, globally.

Thankfully, meteorologists won’t be flying completely blind with so many airlines effectively out of commission. The ECMWF began pulling wind data from the Aeolus satellite in January. As for the NOAA, “while the automated weather reports from commercial aircraft provide exceptionally valuable data for forecast models, we also collect billions of Earth observations from other sources that feed into our models, such as weather balloons, surface weather observation network, radar, satellites and buoys,” the spokesperson told Engadget. “Additionally, NOAA will soon be using COSMIC-2 GPS radio occultation satellite data to further increase observations throughout the depth of the tropical atmosphere.” 

Severe weather can be another problem that sidelines your plans or your commute. By saying, “Alexa, tell me when there’s a severe weather alert,” you’ll be notified in the case of particularly choppy storms.

If you missed an NBA game, you can now catch the highlights on any Alexa-enabled device with a screen. You can either specify which team’s highlights you want to see, or you can ask Alexa to “play the NBA highlights” to see all noteworthy basketball clips.

2020 US presidential election news has been coming in at a fast pace, making it somewhat difficult to stay up-to-date. You can ask Alexa for an election update to hear the latest polling info, candidate positions and debate recaps.

With these new skills — particularly the traffic and weather ones — Alexa could become an even more convenient way to get through your day. The NBA and election news can also help get you up to speed quickly. It’s up to the public if that convenience is worth the risk of less privacy.

Most autonomous vehicles use LIDAR sensors and/or cameras to figure out where they are on the road, but cameras can be thrown off by lighting conditions or snow-covered signs and lane markings, and LIDAR often becomes less accurate in inclement weather. GPR, on the other hand, sends electromagnetic pulses into the ground to measure the specific combination of soil, rocks and roots. That data is turned into a map for self-driving vehicles.

The system, which uses a type of GPR called Localizing Ground Penetrating Radar developed at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, offers a few benefits. For starters, it doesn’t matter if the road is snow-covered or if visibility is blocked by fog. And conditions under the road tend to change less often than features like lane striping and signage.

“If you or I grabbed a shovel and dug it into the ground, all we’re going to see is a bunch of dirt,” says CSAIL PhD student Teddy Ort. “But LGPR can quantify the specific elements there and compare that to the map it’s already created, so that it knows exactly where it is, without needing cameras or lasers.”

So far, the CSAIL team has only tested the system at low speeds on a closed country road, but the researchers believe it could be easily extended to highways and other high-speed areas. They admit that the system doesn’t work as well in rainy conditions, when water has seeped into the ground below the road, and that it is far from road-ready. It would also have to be used in combination with other technology, as it wouldn’t detect hazards on the road.

A paper on the project will be published in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters journal later this month. The team plans to continue refining the hardware, so that it is less bulky — it’s currently six feet wide — and improving LGPR mapping techniques.

The Met said the computer will create a “digital twin” of our atmosphere with data like wind speeds, air temperatures and pressures, and more. It will create forecasts down to an area just 1,000 meters (.62 miles) across compared to 10 km (6.2 miles) currently. Around large airports, accuracy will focus down to just 300m, or about 1,000 feet. Once in service, it will not only generate better forecasts (including rainfall predictions), but help emergency workers deploy mobile flood barriers, balance the energy grid and more.

The Met also noted that it will also help services mitigate the effects of climate change, “and help support the transition to a low carbon economy across the UK,” said Endersby. The supercomputer will also be used by universities for drug design, AI, energy storage and other types of research.

The first stage installation will go into service in 2022 and be six times more capable than the current Cray XC40 (above). Five years later, it’ll get an upgrade that will bump performance by a further three times, making it nearly 20 times more powerful. The cited price includes not just the hardware, but the running cost over ten years. By contrast, the current model was acquired in 2014 and will be retired in 2022. The Met has yet to say which supercomputer it will be acquiring.

The investment is by far the largest in the Met’s history, but the department believes it will make a big difference, adding up to £19 ($23) in benefit for every pound spent. “We’ll be streets ahead of anybody else,” said the Met’s chief executive, Penny Andersby. “Ultimately it’ll make a difference to every individual, every government department, every industry as people see forecasts becoming steadily better.”

2019 was 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (0.98 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). To collect the data, NASA took exhaustive readings from over 20,000 weather stations, sea surface buoys and ships and Antarctic research stations. The full dataset is available on the agency’s website. Statistical analysis of the data shows that this warming is mainly caused by increased carbon dioxide emissions — as well as other greenhouse gases — produced by human activities like manufacturing, farming, and livestock keeping.

While the Earth is getting warmer on average, the effect isn’t evenly distributed throughout the planet. 2019 was only the 34th warmest year on record for the contiguous United States, for example. Meanwhile, the Arctic region has warmed at three times the rate of the rest of the planet.

“Rising temperatures in the atmosphere and ocean are contributing to the continued mass loss from Greenland and Antarctica and to increases in some extreme events, such as heat waves, wildfires, intense precipitation,” says NASA. The NAOO recently found that 2019 wasn’t just the second-hottest year on record — it was also the second-wettest, thanks to historic flooding and extreme hurricanes. As the signs of climate change become more explicit and immediate, its danger has become harder and harder to deny. Hopefully these effects — and the hard data supplied by NASA and the NOAA — prompt more drastic and proactive action on the part of governments and corporations.

Why cut the power?

It’s become evident that overhead power lines are to blame for some of California’s worst wildfires. Sparks from those power lines have ignited some of the largest and most deadly fires in recent history, including the Camp Fire in Paradise, California.

As the state enters peak wildfire season, officials are keeping a close eye on local weather conditions. With low humidity and high winds forecasted, the National Weather Service has issued red-flag fire danger warnings in parts of the state. Taking a proactive approach, PG&E has decided to cut power in order to minimize fire risks.

When, where and for how long?

As of this morning, more than 500,000 PG&E customers are without power. The outages will roll out throughout the day, and they’re expected to impact 34 counties. A full list can be found on the PG&E website.

The company says the outages could last several days, possibly extending until next Tuesday. The utility plans to begin restoring power beginning Thursday, but technicians will have to carefully inspect the lines and repair damage before power is restored. That process can’t begin until the winds have died down, and it could take several days.

What does this mean for Californians?

According to The New York Times, the primary mass transit systems in the San Francisco Bay Area — BART and Caltrain — plan to remain open. Some schools in San Jose and Oakland have closed, and the University of California, Berkeley, canceled classes today. Police officers have been called in to direct traffic, and shoppers are wiping shelves clean of batteries, water and other supplies.

Tesla issued warnings to its EV customers to charge their batteries fully ahead of the outages, and its PowerWall home battery packs are running Storm Watch to store excess power before the lines go down.

PG&E has set up 30 facilities with the essentials: bottled water and outlets to charge electronic devices.

What does PG&E have to say?

“The safety of our customers and the communities we serve is our most important responsibility, which is why PG&E has decided to turn power off to customers during this widespread, severe wind event. We understand the effects this event will have on our customers and appreciate the public’s patience as we do what is necessary to keep our communities safe and reduce the risk of wildfire,” said Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of Electric Operations.

For more info, PG&E customers can visit pge.com/psps and update their contact info to receive automated alerts via calls, texts and email.

Is this the new norm?

PG&E has come under intense scrutiny for its role in past wildfires. The company filed bankruptcy in January due to tens of billions of dollars in wildfire liabilities. Its $30 billion recovery plan includes proactively removing trees, brush and debris around electrical wires and increased use of “grid de-energization” — that is, outages like this one.

So, in short, yes, planned “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” will likely become a more common occurrence for Californians. For that reason, some are calling for electric utilities to bury power lines, but that would be a massive, costly and lengthy process.