In 2012, NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) partnered with the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) at the University of Oklahoma to collect crowdsourced precipitation type data. The “meteorological Phenomena Identification Near the Ground” project (almost always referred to as “mPING”) allows smartphone users to easily and anonymously report precipitation type.

This information can be very valuable to operational forecasters (it is not often easy to tell if it is raining or snowing at a particular location unless someone tells you) and to researchers working to improve radar algorithms. In the slightly-more-than three years since mPING was launched, nearly a million reports have been received, which suggests the public (or at least the members of the public who know about it) find it important to contribute, too.

Which brings us to last week’s announcement that access to the data is no longer free. Apparently the discretionary funding from the NSSL has expired, so it’s moving to OU-funded infrastructure. This means that the University will try to get what money it can for the data. A variety of licenses are available, depending on what level of access is desired.

API access to submit reports will remain free, so it will not cost anyone to contribute a report. But instead of volunteering effort (however minimal) to a public project, mPING reporters are now effectively unpaid labor for the University of Oklahoma. Sources within NOAA tell me that the forecast offices and national centers will continue to receive free access to real-time data, which is good, but not the point. OU thinks this data has value, so why should people provide it for free?

I actually wonder if it has monetary value. Certainly it has utility, but I don’t see too many places being willing to pay for it. One well-known TV meteorologist has already said he will stop using mPING data on-air because purchasing a license is not an efficient use of his limited financial resources. Highway departments may be the most likely to find it worthwhile to pay for a license, as near-real-time precipitation type information could prove very useful to the dispatching of salt trucks and plows. Still, the general effect seems to be that it will put off many people from reporting, diminishing the value of what may be an unsellable product in the first place.

I get that baby’s gotta eat. I spent years working at a large research university, including supporting systems that distributed meteorological data. I understand the reality, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I’m pessimistic on what these changes mean for mPING, and the poor example they set for citizen science generally. I hope I’m wrong.