Atmosphere

I downloaded this app to better understand the clouds that we see in the sky around our area. Also with the increase in regional tornadoes I wanted an app I could point at the clouds and make a determination as to whether we needed to head to the basement. This is a decent app overall and I do enjoy it. It does a good job of identifying the top level cloud types (as noted under NOAA’s Top 10 clouds website). There are cases where I can be pointing this app at the clouds though and it doesn’t recognize anything in the sky, or there is overlap in the cloud types and it freaks out. Hard to tell when that occurs, but typically happens when the clouds aren’t in the forefront and require “zoom”, or when multiple cloud types are present. I took off one star for those operability issues. Some improvements and wish-list items I’d like to see in the app that would make it absolutely stellar though are listed below: 1) Enhance the algorithm to better ID clouds in the sky. It flits too often between cloud types and can’t accurately ID clouds at times. For example, I’m currently pointing the app at some less-prominent Cirrus clouds in the sky. The app doesn’t recognize them at all (even when zoomed in), but has no problem latching onto the Cumulus clouds in the sky (that are now offscreen because I zoomed in). Granted it can’t figure whether the clouds it wants to focus on are Cumulus or Stratocumulus, varied results, but the ability to click an area of the screen to say “focus” here could help in enhancing identification. Especially for less prominent clouds. 2) Ability to pinch the screen to zoom in and out. Don’t really like having to hunt-and-peck to click the screen, so adding that in would help. 3) Enhance the app to distinguish between the species of clouds while in use. Ie if I point this at the cloud, I’d love to see it say “Stratus - Fractus”. Not just the top level “Stratus” result. 4) Add in pictures for the cloud species. The species links don’t currently lead to anything “on-click” within each top-level cloud profile. Be nice to see pictures of the sub-types to better reference the sky by (unless it’s a paid feature I’m missing). 5) Expand the library to include cloud sub-species. For example, Cumulonimbus has additional sub-species of “Cumulonimbus Calvis Incus” and “Cumulonimbus Capitallus Incus”. These are associated with those fun shelf style anvil clouds that we see in the sky sometimes here. The dangerous ones that I picked this app out for. 6) Subsequently, as a fun addition, it’d be cool if the app could identify potential funnel clouds (trumpets). By trumpet pattern and/or by rotation even. 7) Support for fun “additional” cloud types like “Mammatus” and “Kelvin-Helmholtz”. I recall seeing “Mammatus” clouds as a kid prior to a tornado event, which in hindsight was pretty cool to see. Overall though, in a pinch, this helps ID the clouds in the sky. Teaching my kiddo the cloud types has been fun too. But to make it a useful field tool, adding the above features would be a big nice-to-have in the next major release. Thanks!

Downloaded this app hoping to have some fun with it but right from the beginning it does not do what it says it does. Worked fine for a day or two but now every time you point the camera towards a cloud you get nothing. I have tried everything including reinstalling it but it just won’t work. Then I tried emailing the developer, twice and nothing but crickets. WATCH YOURSELVES because it isn’t cheap either!

I especially like being able to point my iPhone skyward while stopped at an intersection to capture unusual or awesome cloud formations. For the AI to work I sometimes have to reframe the picture until I get a relatively stable confidence value, at least in the 80s. Hot the camera button to capture it (before the light turns green). I also use it on my iPad—works perfectly now that the bug is fixed. Opportunities: picture sharing with other devices on the same Apple ID, offer users the chance to share images with the developer to furthering train the AI, and add examples of sub-cloud types on the “info” pages.