Smartphone: May Be 1st Alert on Floods, Natural Disaster

Tel Aviv University Research - Smartphones Can Be Harnessed to Forecast Natural Disasters
This is fascinating research on smartphones just released by Tel Aviv University.  Smartphones are now capable of measuring atmospheric pressure, humidity and temperature.  Why not tap into that? Israeli scientists believe the phones can be "harnessed" to forecast flash floods and other natural disasters.  If so, that would provide time to possibly save lives.
Super Smart Phones
The phones' sensors are constantly monitoring the environment.  This includes atmospheric pressure, gravity, humidity, temperature, light and sound levels and a lot more.  According to lead researcher Prof. Colin Price, the data the phones are gathering could greatly improve the ability to accurately forecast the weather and provide some lead time on impending natural disasters.

Billions of Smartphones Gathering Data
4 billion smartphones containing vital atmospheric data are in use globally.  What the scientists envision is this:
  1. Smartphones provide real time weather alerts through a feedback loop
  2. The public find atmospheric data on the "cloud" via an app
  3. The data is processed into real time forecasts and returned to users, including warnings to those in danger zones.
Just Published Research
The Israeli research has just been published.  It could save lives by giving people time to flee impending floods or other disasters via their smartphones.

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