The Institute for Ubiquitous Meteorology (UBIMET) is a worldwide private provider of

weather forecasts Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmo ...

and

severe weather Severe weather is any dangerous meteorological phenomenon with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life. These vary depending on the latitude, altitude, topography, and atmospheric conditions. High ...

warnings.

History

Ubimet was established in

Vienna, Austria Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, by Dr. Michael Fassnauer and Manfred Spatzierer in September 2004 under the name Meteomedia GmbH. It began by providing weather services to institutions such as the

German Press Agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (abbreviated as dpa; ) is a German news agency founded in 1949. Based in Hamburg, it has grown to be a major worldwide operation serving print media, radio, television, online, mobile phones, and national news agen ...

Austrian Federal Railways The Austrian Federal Railways ( , formally or () and formerly the or ''BBÖ'' ), now commonly known as ÖBB (), is the national railway company of Austria, and the administrator of Liechtenstein's railways. The ÖBB group i ...

,http://www.railwaypro.com/wp/?p=11006 Oebb and

Uniqa Insurance Group The Uniqa Insurance Group AG (corporately styled "UNIQA") is one of the largest insurance groups in its core markets of Austria and Central and Eastern Europe and has approximately 40 companies in 22 countries and serve about 10.5 million custom ...

. Ubimet went on to build the Austrian Severe Weather Center to forecast extreme weather events. In December 2008, shares of Meteomedia Group were bought back by the company's founders, and the name was changed to UBIMET GmbH. Today, companies in the insurance, media (such as ''

Der Standard ''Der Standard'' () is an Austrian daily newspaper published in Vienna. It is considered a newspaper of record for Austria. History and profile ''Der Standard'' was founded by Oscar Bronner as a financial newspaper and published its first editio ...

'' and ''

Kronen Zeitung The ''Kronen Zeitung'' (), commonly known as the ''Krone'', is Austria's largest newspaper. It is known for being Eurosceptic. History The first issue of the ''Kronen Zeitung'' appeared on 2 January 1900. Gustav Davis, a former army officer, ...

''), sports (the

International Automobile Federation International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

Moto GP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...

, the Australian Olympic sailing team, the 2013 European Beach Volleyball Championships), infrastructure (Austrian Federal Railways,

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

), energy (

E.on E.ON SE is a European multinational electric utility company based in Essen, Germany. It operates as one of the world's largest investor-owned electric utility service providers. The name originates from the Latin word '' aeon'', derived from ...

), mining (Austminehttp://www.austmine.com.au/Directory/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/2135/UBIMET Austmine), and logistics (

STRABAG STRABAG SE is an Austrian international technology group for the built environment based in Spittal an der Drau, Austria, with its headquarters in Vienna. It is the largest construction company in Austria and one of the largest construction comp ...

) industries use UBIMET's corporate services. In 2011, the company opened an office in

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung/ or ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most-populous city in Australia, after Sydney. The city's name generally refers to a metropolitan area also known ...

, with a full-scale operation including

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

s and business development resources, as well as marketing and infrastructure. In 2012, Ubimet provided weather data for the

Red Bull Stratos Red Bull Stratos was a high-altitude skydiving project involving Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner. On 14 October 2012, Baumgartner flew approximately into the stratosphere over New Mexico, United States, in a helium balloon before free fa ...

space diving project during which

Felix Baumgartner Felix Baumgartner (; born 20 April 1969) is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper. He is widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as p ...

successfully ascended to 128,100 feet in a stratospheric balloon and free-fell at

supersonic speed Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach number, Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater tha ...

before parachuting to the ground. In the same year, Red Bull became a company shareholder. Ubimet now provides weather data for many of Red Bull's global sporting events (e.g., the Wings For Life World Run in 2014 and 2015). Since 2014, Ubimet has had a contract with the International Automobile Federation (FIA) to provide weather forecasts for all

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

Grand Prix races.http://medianet.com.au/releases/release-details?id=797470 Formula 1 It did so for the Formula One race on October 5, 2014, in Suzuka, Japan, when Typhoon Phanfone approached the city. Ubimet also provided meteorological data for the 2013 and 2014 Tissot

Australian motorcycle Grand Prix The Australian motorcycle Grand Prix is a motorcycling event that is part of the FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. From 1997 to the present day, it is run at the scenic Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit south-southeast of Melbourne, Vict ...

.http://www.motogp.com.au/ubimet MotoGP Australia In July 2015, Ubimet launched its flagship consumer product, Morecast, on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.morecast.weather Morecast App The app combines weather forecasts, radar and satellite maps for rain and lightning, as well as severe storm warning notifications.

Research and development

In cooperation with several international research institutes, UBIMET's research and development department is involved in multiple research projects. The company's INDUS project (individualised, nowcasting-based dynamic warning system) won the Centre for Innovation and Technology's "Safe and Secure Vienna" contest at the Viennovation Awards in 2006.
http://www.ubimet.com/en_AU/company/history/ UBIMET Website In 2007, the Centre for Innovation and Technology selected the company's SITUMET (situation-based ubiquitous meteorological services) project for funding. UBIMET was also named a "Vienna Spot of Excellence". In 2006, UBIMET received the Vienna Chamber of Commerce's "Mercury Prize for the most innovative service" of the year for its WIND IV (weather information on demand) severe weather warning system.
http://www.rail-weather.net/meteomedia.htm Awards In 2011, it was one of three European companies to participate in the launch ceremony of “Future Internet”, a large European research initiative, in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. The company was cited as an example of innovation in Europe's internet future.
http://www.future-internet.eu/events/eventview/article/future-internet-ppp-launch-ceremony-1.html Future Internet From January 2011 to April 2014, UBIMET and Uniqa Insurance Group worked with the

Fraunhofer Society The Fraunhofer Society () is a German publicly-owned research organization with 76institutes spread throughout Germany, each focusing on different fields of applied science (as opposed to the Max Planck Society, which works primarily on Basic re ...

on Opti-Alert, an international study funded by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. The aim of the study was to improve alert strategies for extreme weather events.

Lightning detection system

The Ubimet lightning detection system measures lightning at a third of a millionth of a second, using five ground-based antennas to detect the electrical discharge of a strike. Once lightning hits, the electromagnetic waves travel through two copper coils at right angles, inducing a current. This is then registered by an embedded device, transferred to Ubimet's central processing unit and transmitted to meteorologists or paying companies within 30 seconds. Worldwide lightning data is also displayed on the 3D Weather Globe of Ubimet's Morecast App, free of charge.{{cite web , url=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/ubimet-detecting-lightning-predicting-storms , work=Wired UK , title=The lightning chasers who predict when and where storms will hit , first=Ruby , last=Lott-Lavigna , date=23 October 2016

Data and models

UBIMET has access to data that is compliant with

World Meteorological Organization The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology an ...

standards. It also has access to

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

weather radar A weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern w ...

weather buoy Weather buoys are instruments which collect weather and ocean data within the world's oceans, as well as aid during emergency response to chemical spills, legal proceedings, and engineering design. Moored buoys have been in use since 1951, whil ...

radiosonde A radiosonde is a battery-powered telemetry instrument carried into the atmosphere usually by a weather balloon that measures various atmospheric parameters and transmits them by radio to a ground receiver. Modern radiosondes measure or calculat ...

, and

lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

data. It uses a combination of global and proprietary weather models.

References

External links

* http://www.ubimet.com * http://www.morecast.com - MORECAST * http://www.fokus.fraunhofer.de/1aa18d7737565666 - SITUMET * http://www.opti-alert.eu - OPTI ALERT * http://www.zit.co.at/en.html - ZIT * https://www.wired.co.uk/article/ubimet-detecting-lightning-predicting-storms - WIRED UK Companies based in Vienna Meteorological companies Meteorological data and networks Meteorological organisations based in Austria Organizations established in 2004