Galileo, where is it?

Galileo the European satellite navigation system became operational 15th December 2016, so now it has been working for nearly a year. Galileo will be more precise than the American GPS or Russian GLONASS systems. But when combined the time to get a fix on your position will be reduced and the accuracy improved, especially in buildup or forested areas.

However, said this, where are the Galileo enabled devices? My Sony Xperia shows me GPS, GLONASS and the Chinese BeiDou, but no Galileo. A quick look on the USEGALILEO.EU site will give you an overview of the availability of enabled mobile phones or other devices, like drones. At date there are 29 mobile phones listed which are Galileo enabled, for example Nokia 8, iPhone 8, Samsung S8, Sony Xperia XZ Premium, mostly high-end phones. Only 19 drones are listed, usually expensive professional use devices

So if you aim to  get extra accuracy to your positioning, drone or smart phone, I advise to check the technical information of the products you are interested in.

MeteoEarth

MeteoEarth – 3D global weather view

MeteoEarth 3D is a great app for viewing and tracking weather systems around the globe. It has versions for use in use in browsers, but the iPad app I use most frequently. The app is cool and self-explaining. By paying 10 € for the premium version (12 months) you get wind data from sea level up to 9000 meters.it shows wind direction and velocity, precipitation, temperature and air pressure. in addition, major storm systems like hurricanes and typhoons are shown together with their track. It is great for educational purposes, it makes it easy to explain the jet stream, cyclones and anti-cyclones, global climate and weather systems etc.

Of course, some features could be added to improve insight, for example the equator, which would make the seasonal variation of the ITCZ more easy to follow. Otherwise a great app, even the free version.

See MeteoEarth.com   for more information.