AerisWeather SDK for iOS – 3.1.0 Released

We’ve been releasing several new products related to tropical cyclones recently, such as our new AerisWeather API tropical cyclone endpoints and AerisWeather Maps Platform (AMP) tropical layers. And continuing this trend, we’ve also released version 3.1.0 of our AerisWeather SDK for iOS that now lets your iOS applications take advantage of both of these new products.

Tropical Point Data Layer

The biggest new feature in 3.1.0 is the addition of a point layer for tropical cyclone data. This point layer is similar to our existing storm cells and storm reports layers in that they are fully interactive and fully animatable layers. By default, the tropical cyclones point layer only shows active systems.

To add this layer to your weather map, just use the

AWFMapLayerTropical

  enum value:

[self.weatherMap addSourceForLayerType:AWFMapLayerTropicalCyclones];

weatherMap.addSource(forLayerType: .tropicalCyclones)

Alternatively, you can render all tropical cyclones for the season corresponding to the map timeline. Just change the request options used for the point data via AWFWeatherMapDataSource:

- (AWFWeatherRequestOptions *)weatherMap:(AWFWeatherMap *)weatherMap requestOptionsForLayer:(AWFMapLayer)layerType {
    AWFWeatherRequestOptions *options = nil;
    
    if (layerType == AWFMapLayerTropicalCyclones) {
        options = [AWFWeatherRequestOptions new];
        options.filterString = AWFTropicalCycloneFilterGeo;
        options.limit = 100;
    }
    
    return options;
}

func weatherMap(_ weatherMap: AWFWeatherMap, requestOptionsForLayer layerType: AWFMapLayer) -> AWFWeatherRequestOptions? {
    var options: AWFWeatherRequestOptions?
    
    if layerType == .tropicalCyclones {
        options = AWFWeatherRequestOptions()
        options?.filterString = AWFTropicalCycloneFilter.geo
        options?.limit = 100
    }
    
    return options
}

By being an interactive layer, you and your app’s users can tap on any point along a tropical cyclone’s track to reveal details about the cyclone at that particular position, such as its current storm category, wind speed and central pressure values. All of this data is powered by the tropical cyclones endpoint from our AerisWeather API, which means you can customize the data that is displayed when a particular point is tapped or perform alternative actions based on your app’s functionality.

Since the SDK renders each point based on the underlying position data, you can also animate a tropical cyclone’s track across time using the weather map’s timeline feature you’re already familiar with. For example, the following screenshot shows the progression of several tropical systems across a period of a week:

You can even animate tropical tracks alongside other AMP layers. The following screenshot shows global satellite animated alongside tropical cyclone tracks to show even more storm detail:

Note that if you’re using Mapbox or Google Maps SDK with our AerisWeather SDK, the tropical cyclone point data layer does not currently support animating. We will be adding support for animated tropical data via Mapbox and Google Maps in upcoming minor releases.

Tropical AMP Layers

You can also render tropical cyclones in your apps using our variety of AMP tropical cyclone layers! Simply use the appropriate

AWFMapLayer

  enumerated values to add to your weather map as you would any other AMP layer:

[self.weatherMap addSourceForLayerType:AWFMapLayerAmpTropicalCyclones];
[self.weatherMap addSourceForLayerType:AWFMapLayerTropicalCyclonesNames];

weatherMap.addSource(forLayerType: .ampTropicalCyclones)
weatherMap.addSource(forLayerType: .tropicalCyclonesNames)

Using this method will render tropical cyclone data via AMP imagery instead:

The downside to using AMP imagery instead of the point data layer is that it’s not interactive content. Also, animating track data won’t appear the same as point data. Therefore, your users will not be able to tap on a point along the track to reveal more details. You can, however, achieve something similar by observing tap gestures on the map view. You would then need to request the data for the point closest to that location from the API. But there is no built-in implementation of this within our AerisWeather SDK.

Other Changes and Improvements

Other than the new tropical layer support, this release makes several underlying improvements to Mapbox and Google Maps implementations. We’ve also fixed and improved several issues related to customizing the styling associated with point and shape map layers. Look for future blog posts for more information on how you can customize your weather map data further. Check out the full changelog for the 3.1.0 release.

Start Using 3.1.0 of the AerisWeather SDK for iOS!

You can quickly get started with the latest version of our AerisWeather iOS SDK by using one of the various installation methods for your iOS projects. Also, be sure to check out our demo application on Github that demonstrates much of the functionality built into the SDK.

Not currently an AerisWeather user? Check out our free developer trial or contact our accounts team for assistance in getting started with an account.

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