AccuWeather's Global Radar API provides subscribers access to a weather map overlay service and a static weather map image via a simple RESTful web interface.

The radar overlay service does not include a map of any type. It returns a series of graphics in square tiles for layering on top of an existing map to illustrate weather conditions. Therefore, the Global Radar overlay is not a stand-alone service but is intended to be paired with a Mercator projection mapping service such as Bing Maps or Google Maps. Tiles are returned one at a time in PNG format.

The static weather map endpoint returns image files in either PNG or JPG format. These images include a current look at radar conditions in the requested geography. Each image includes a legend for color-based data. Both light mode and dark mode are available.

Products

Different regions of the world have different systems and methods for gathering weather data. Because of this, the different regions all provide weather data at different intervals. For example, the United States and Asia might update more frequently than the EU and Indian Ocean regions. This update inconsistency will cause an uneven graphical representation on weather maps. If a user has the map zoomed out far enough that they can see both the United States and the European Union at the same time, the EU's weather graphics may appear to “jump” every few frames, while the US data continuously moves with each successive frame.

To remedy this situation our Global Radar system will examine each region of the world (called products) based on various properties. In our scenario it would be most helpful to identify all the products displayed on the user's map. Once those products have been identified, the Global Radar system can determine which product has the slowest data refresh rate, and then match all the faster products to that slower rate. This way the US will refresh at the same rate as the EU on the user's map. The result is a cohesive and graceful view of the world's weather.

Each product has a unique code that consists of two numbers separated by a dash. The first number is called the major value, and the second is the minor value. Both numbers are provided by any API response that identifies one or more product.

Frames

Some endpoints will return a list of frames. Each frame has a temporal value and defines one set of radar tiles to be returned. The total time span encompassed by these frames will vary between products and are subject to change for each individual product. Global Radar will match all products within the viewing area to the time span of the product with the shortest time span. For example, the US might have a time span of one hour and fifteen minutes, while the EU might only have a time span of one hour. When the user has both the US and the EU within their viewing area, Global Radar will cut down the US frames to only cover one hour so the weather data for both regions will match.