Bad weather sometimes plays havoc with cellular phone service, but Israeli engineers have found that these same wireless communication networks can be used to efficiently and accurately monitor the amount of rainfall around the country in real time. The data, published today in the journal Science, was collected by an Israeli team headed by University of Tel-Aviv professor Hagit Messer-Yaron.

Rain, snow, humidity, and other atmospheric conditions affect the strength of electromagnetic signals. Mobile phone operators already collect such data and use the knowledge to boost the network when things turn nasty.

The team collated mast strength numbers with recorded precipitation levels. They found that the variation in reception was a better real-time indicator of conditions than current radar techniques.

Thanks to the near-ubiquity of cellular networks, mobile mast monitoring is also more widely available, and cheaper than expensive surface rain guages, they say. [3G!]

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 Print Posted by Budi Putra on May 6th, 2006