smoggyapp turns your phone into a scientific instrument. Photograph airplane contrails, record them alongside real-time flight data, and contribute to a global environmental dataset.
No lab required. Just your phone, the sky, and smoggyapp's AI engine.
Live aircraft radar shows all traffic around you in real time. Identify exactly what is leaving a trail above you.
Take a photo of the contrail. On-device checks confirm it is a real sky photo, then our AI analyses trace count, width, and persistence.
Your anonymous observation joins the global dataset. Take a 2nd photo to detect spreading. Earn ranks on the leaderboard.
Your data records trails, flights and weather side by side. Researchers and universities gain ground-truth observations they can investigate for themselves — you draw your own conclusions.
A scientific method in your pocket. Real aircraft, real trails, real-time weather recorded together.
Track airplane contrails in real time. AI detects trail count, width change, and spreading — recorded alongside live flight and weather data.
smoggyapp is a free download. It runs on voluntary support, which keeps the project independent.
Everything you might want to know about smoggyapp, your privacy, and the data.
A contrail ("condensation trail") is the line-shaped cloud that forms behind an aircraft when hot, humid engine exhaust meets very cold air high in the atmosphere. Most contrails disappear within seconds to minutes. Some persist and spread into thin cirrus-like clouds — and those are the ones scientists study for their effect on climate.
smoggyapp shows you real aircraft flying near you using live ADS-B flight data, lets you photograph the sky, and uses AI to detect and measure contrails in your photo. It records that alongside live weather — it does not claim a link. Each anonymous observation is added to a global dataset, so anyone can investigate for themselves how often trails persist and spread.
No. Your photos are analysed on the spot and then discarded. Nothing is uploaded or kept. Only anonymous data — the AI result, a weather snapshot, and a coarse (~1 km) location — is stored. Today you can use smoggyapp with no account at all. Optional social login (Google / Apple) is coming soon, for people who want to keep their history across devices.
Location is used only to match the aircraft passing overhead with your sky. It is rounded to about a 1 km area before anything is stored, is never linked to your identity, and you can decline it — the app still works for photos and AI. See our Privacy Policy for details.
smoggyapp is a neutral, science-first observation tool. It does not make claims — it records what is actually in the sky: real flights, real weather, and AI measurements of real trails. Anyone curious about the sky is welcome to look for themselves and judge the data on its own terms.
smoggyapp is a free download. It runs on voluntary support. In a future phase, anonymous aggregated data may be made available to researchers.
smoggyapp is a Progressive Web App — no app store needed. Open go.smoggyapp.com on your phone, then tap Share → Add to Home Screen. It opens like a normal app.
No login is required to use smoggyapp. Optional social login (Google / Apple) is coming soon, for people who want to keep their history across devices. Login stays optional.
Email support@smoggyapp.com for any question, request, or research inquiry.
Airplane contrails can evolve into cirrus clouds that trap heat. Their short-term warming effect may rival aviation CO₂. smoggyapp collects ground-truth observations that satellites alone cannot provide.
Every observation is checked on-device before entering the dataset. No photos stored. GDPR compliant. Clean, structured data points anyone can build on.
smoggyapp is a Progressive Web App. No app store needed. Open in your browser and add to your home screen in seconds.
smoggyapp is an independent, early-stage project. The app is a free download and stores no photos. Your support helps cover servers, live flight data, and bring open sky observations to more people around the world.
smoggyapp is a citizen-science app. It is built privacy-first: you can observe and submit without giving us your name or email, and your photos are never stored. This page explains the data we handle, who receives it, and why.
smoggyapp, operated from Greece, is the data controller under the GDPR. Contact: support@smoggyapp.com
When you submit an observation, the app may add an entry to a public map that anyone can read — an approximate location, a short label, a timestamp and your anonymous ID.
Your exact position is never published. Every entry is shifted by a small distance (roughly 1–2 km) before it's published, using a method designed so that your real location can't be worked out even by combining many of your entries together over time. If you post from a variety of different places rather than always the same spot, that adds even more uncertainty on top — there's no single, tight cluster of entries for anyone to zero in on.
Nothing else from your observation reaches the map: no weather, no air quality, no upper-air profile, no flight details, no confidence score. You can remove your entries at any time with Delete my data.
The exact method used is documented in our source code and can be provided to data protection authorities on request, to verify GDPR compliance.
Location is used only after you tap Allow location — that is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), and you can withdraw it at any time in your device settings (the app still works for photos and AI). We also apply basic anti-abuse limits to keep the service running, which is our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)). Research use of the anonymised dataset falls under Art. 89.
Anonymous observations are stored in Google Firebase (Firestore), running on Google Cloud infrastructure. We also use these providers, which receive only what is listed:
Where a provider is outside the European Economic Area, the transfer is covered by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or an adequacy decision.
We do not sell personal data, and we run no ads or third-party trackers. Anonymised and aggregated observations — which cannot be traced back to you — may be published or licensed for scientific research into contrails, clouds and weather.
Deleting your data removes everything linked to your anonymous ID immediately, whatever its age.
smoggyapp is not directed at children. If you are under 16, please do not use the app without a parent or guardian's involvement. We do not knowingly collect data from children below that age; if you believe we have, write to support@smoggyapp.com and we will delete it.
Weather & air-quality data by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Flight data via the OpenSky Network and adsb.fi.
Atmospheric composition map layers contain modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) information (ECMWF). Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use of this information.
Satellite imagery courtesy of NASA EOSDIS Worldview / GIBS, part of the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
Base maps © OpenFreeMap & OpenStreetMap contributors.
Under the GDPR you can access, correct or delete your data, object to processing, and ask for a copy in a portable format. The fastest route is built into the app: open the left menu → Your data → Delete my data. This erases every observation linked to your anonymous ID, every entry you have published to the shared map, your stats, and the anonymous account itself — instantly, with no email required.
One limit you should know: once an observation has been included in an anonymised research dataset, it can no longer be linked to you — and for that reason it cannot be removed from that dataset.
Questions or complaints: support@smoggyapp.com. We answer within one month. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your national data-protection authority — in Greece, the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (dpa.gr).
If we add new features that change what we collect or who receives it, we will update this page before that change goes live.
Questions or requests: support@smoggyapp.com
By using smoggyapp you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the app.
smoggyapp shows you real flight and weather data so you can observe contrails and judge the sky for yourself. It is an informational, citizen-science tool — not a safety, navigation, aviation, or official scientific service. We do not guarantee that the data is accurate, complete, or always available.
To keep smoggyapp available for everyone and prevent abuse, we apply limits to how often requests can be made. This protects the service and is part of running it responsibly.
smoggyapp is offered at no charge at present and is supported by voluntary contributions. We may change what is offered at no charge, or introduce paid features, at any time. A contribution is a gift, not a purchase: it is not refundable, buys no goods or services, and unlocks no features — every user gets the same app.
A paid Pro tier is planned for the future. Supporting the project now does not grant access to it.
The smoggyapp app, name, logo, and content are owned by smoggyapp. The anonymous observation data may be used for research.
smoggyapp shows data produced by third parties. We credit them here as their licences require:
These organisations do not endorse smoggyapp and are not responsible for it.
The app is provided “as is”, without warranties of any kind. We are not liable for any decisions you make based on the information shown.
We may update these terms. Continued use after an update means you accept the new version.
Questions: support@smoggyapp.com