Interactive Visualization and App Development for Precipitation Data in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Precipitation plays a highly significant part in the hydrological cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the freshwater on earth. It can also impact the climate ecosystem. Considerable work has been performed to understand, model and predict precipitation. However, to the best of our knowledge, hardly any interactive visualizations exist that allow end-users to obtain a better perception of local impacts; also there are no specific apps for this purpose. The two goals of our work are thus: to design a visualization tool that illustrates changes in precipitation in a given time period with analysis; and to design a mobile application (app) that displays Sub-Saharan precipitation patterns, both using big data. This work would be advantageous to environmental scientists, as well as local residents of the respective areas. It would also be beneficial to students interested in conducting climate-based research. It addresses the theme of IoT (Internet of Things) which involves providing ubiquitous access to Internet-Based information on platforms such as smartphones and other mobile devices.