These works are inspired by the Ventusky web application, which has been developed by InMeteo in collaboration with Marek Mojzík and Martin Prantl. InMeteo is a Czech meteorological company based in Pilsen. The company focuses on weather prediction and meteorological data visualisation.
The team behind the Ventusky app has created an application that clearly displays meteorological data from around the world and allows users to monitor weather development for any place on earth.
The Earth’s weather functions as an interdependent system. For example, a hurricane in the Atlantic has the ability to influence the distribution of pressure formations in Europe. Occasionally, it may even make its way to Europe itself as a post-tropical storm.
According to the team, the Ventusky app allows for the illustration of the interdependence of the entire system, displaying the development of pressure, wind, cloud cover, precipitation, and temperature on the map.
For visualisation of wind data, the team utilizes current lines that are used to illustrate the movement of particles in liquids. Air and liquid have many similar physical properties, and, as published by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenber (Hint.fm, 2012), current lines are suitable for illustrating wind as well.
Because of this, the map depicts wonderful formations illustrating pressure lows that draw in the air around them. We have created an entirely new system of displaying waves.
Through the use of animated arcs, the application’s visualisation clearly differentiates the direction of movement and height of both wind waves and swells. For the other meteorological elements, the team chose color scales that appropriately illustrate precipitation, air pressure, and temperature.
The colors correspond with the feeling that the given weather phenomena evoke in humans. For temperature, blue illustrates cool weather while dark red depicts hot desert air.
For precipitation, the team concentrated on the danger associated with it. Blue colors represent low precipitation totals that will not result in floods. Orange and red hues, on the other hand, are dangerous and may bring flooding.
