PhosphorTide
iPhone / Références
PhosphorTide is a real-time Irish coastal tide monitor rendered through the warm glow of a vintage phosphor terminal.
Track tides across all 38 Irish coastal stations — from Malin Head to Ballycotton, Galway to Dublin Port — with data sourced directly from the Marine Institute of Ireland's ERDDAP service.
INTERACTIVE COASTAL MAP
An interactive map of Ireland shows every tide station, wave buoy, and weather buoy at a glance. Pinch to zoom, drag to pan, and tap any marker to drill into its data. Station markers pulse with the current tide state — rising or falling — so you can read the entire coastline in seconds. Select a station from the list and the map smoothly zooms to centre on it.
TIDE PREDICTIONS
High-resolution tide curves at 5-minute intervals for every station. View predictions on an oscilloscope-style trace that scrolls through time, with a dim phosphor fill beneath the curve. Both gauged and modelled stations are supported.
HIGH & LOW TIDE EVENTS
See the next high or low tide for every station with a live countdown. The station list shows at a glance whether each location is rising, falling, at high water, or at low — with brighter indicators for rising and high states.
TIDE DATUMS
Switch between two standard vertical reference datums. OD Malin (Ordnance Datum Malin Head) is the Irish survey datum, measuring heights relative to mean sea level at Malin Head. LAT (Lowest Astronomical Tide) is the chart datum used in marine navigation — the lowest level the tide is predicted to reach under normal conditions. All tide heights and predictions update instantly when you switch between them.
HOME SCREEN WIDGET
A small home screen widget displays your chosen home station at a glance — current tide state (rising, falling, high, or low), the next high and low tide times in chronological order, and the interpolated current water level. The widget updates automatically and refreshes when tide events pass. It follows your selected colour theme and datum preference. A simple moon phase indicator is also included for reference.
REAL-TIME GAUGE DATA
For the 26 gauged stations, live water level readings are pulled from the Irish National Tide Gauge Network and displayed alongside predictions, so you can compare actual conditions against the forecast.
WAVE CONDITIONS
Wave buoy data from the IWaveB Network shows significant wave height, peak period, peak direction, energy period, and sea temperature. A wave height trace visualises recent conditions, and a compass rose displays swell direction. All registered buoys are listed with clear indication of which are currently reporting.
WEATHER BUOYS
Ireland's offshore weather buoys (M2–M6) report atmospheric pressure, air and sea temperature, wind speed and direction, gust readings, wave height, and relative humidity. A barograph trace shows the pressure trend with time-axis labels.
GREEDY OFFLINE CACHING
PhosphorTide aggressively caches data for offline use. On first launch, bundled prediction data provides instant access without any network connection. When online, the app fetches 90 days of tide predictions and a full year of high/low events for all 38 stations. Cached data persists across launches, so the app remains fully functional through extended periods without connectivity.
RETRO CRT AESTHETIC
Every screen is rendered in authentic phosphor terminal style — scanline overlays, glowing traces, monospaced typography, and box-drawing borders. Choose between classic green phosphor and warm amber CRT colour themes.
DESIGNED FOR PRIVACY
No accounts. No tracking. No analytics. No advertising. PhosphorTide connects only to the Marine Institute's public data service. Your location is used solely on-device to find the nearest station — it is never transmitted or stored.
PhosphorTide is part of the Phosphor suite of retro-styled monitoring applications
