denverpilot
Tied Down
Tagging @scottd but other EFB makers welcome to respond also, and users also of course...
Greg Brown made an interesting observation today on his FB page.
He noted that there's always been areas of the US with significant NEXRAD coverage holes.
He also noted that his EFB -- which one he was using I either skimmed over or wasn't in the post -- doesn't show areas of zero NEXRAD coverage -- when pulling radar data from any source... XM, ADS-B In, etc.
Any EFB makers currently showing these areas of Zero NEXRAD coverage?
Secondarily, any displaying any sort of warning or hash marks in an area when a NEXRAD site is off the air?
Obviously there's other possible holes in the data chain (ADS-B not transmitting weather due to a problem, XM similar, whatever...)
But the "There's zero NEXRAD here" issue leaves a trap for young players who have always lived inside of a lovely blanket of NEXRAD for hundreds of miles around, and the EFB shows a clear sky, and it's not matching what the Mark 1 Eyeball sees out the window.
A possible idea for an important update to the various EFBs?
- Show areas where NEXRAD isn't available at all on the map when radar data is active.
- Show areas where NEXRAD isn't available during NEXRAD site outages and maintenance.
- Show areas where NEXRAD data hasn't been received for a long time. (I think most of them already do this in one fashion or another. As long as you don't have to dig for it in menus, but it's displayed on the map via the radar overlay.)
Thoughts?
I haven't tested/tried any of the above on Foreflight, mostly because I'd have to go figure out from the NEXRAD site where such an area is, and then poke around a lot to see if there's a way to tell there's no data there, ever. And I can't simulate the radar site outage alerts and notifications, of course.
Other than that, it's just a heads up for all... if there's no data available, doesn't matter if you try to display it, the weather there will always look spiffy!
Greg Brown made an interesting observation today on his FB page.
He noted that there's always been areas of the US with significant NEXRAD coverage holes.
He also noted that his EFB -- which one he was using I either skimmed over or wasn't in the post -- doesn't show areas of zero NEXRAD coverage -- when pulling radar data from any source... XM, ADS-B In, etc.
Any EFB makers currently showing these areas of Zero NEXRAD coverage?
Secondarily, any displaying any sort of warning or hash marks in an area when a NEXRAD site is off the air?
Obviously there's other possible holes in the data chain (ADS-B not transmitting weather due to a problem, XM similar, whatever...)
But the "There's zero NEXRAD here" issue leaves a trap for young players who have always lived inside of a lovely blanket of NEXRAD for hundreds of miles around, and the EFB shows a clear sky, and it's not matching what the Mark 1 Eyeball sees out the window.
A possible idea for an important update to the various EFBs?
- Show areas where NEXRAD isn't available at all on the map when radar data is active.
- Show areas where NEXRAD isn't available during NEXRAD site outages and maintenance.
- Show areas where NEXRAD data hasn't been received for a long time. (I think most of them already do this in one fashion or another. As long as you don't have to dig for it in menus, but it's displayed on the map via the radar overlay.)
Thoughts?
I haven't tested/tried any of the above on Foreflight, mostly because I'd have to go figure out from the NEXRAD site where such an area is, and then poke around a lot to see if there's a way to tell there's no data there, ever. And I can't simulate the radar site outage alerts and notifications, of course.
Other than that, it's just a heads up for all... if there's no data available, doesn't matter if you try to display it, the weather there will always look spiffy!