Inverza press & media resources

At a glance

About Inverza

Inverza is a landscape photography weather app for iOS. It auto-selects the best regional weather model for each location and layers real-time airport observations, marine sea-surface temperatures, aerosol data, and terrain analysis on top to predict sixteen photo-worthy conditions, from colorful dawn and ground fog to aurora borealis, cloud inversions, and lenticular clouds over mountain ridges.

Where generic weather apps answer "is it going to rain?", Inverza answers "will the light be worth getting up at 4 a.m.?" Each condition has a confidence score, a predicted time window, and an explanation photographers can trust. The app is designed by a landscape photographer for landscape photographers.

Version 1.5 extended the forecasts into composition planning: an ARKit-powered AR Sky view draws sun, moon, and Milky Way paths onto the live camera feed with a time scrubber and per-lens framing preview, a Horizon Paths chart shows the real terrain horizon of any saved spot with sun and moon arcs across it for remote planning, and a Raw Weather Data panel surfaces every underlying forecast value as interactive 7-day charts with custom alerts on the exact values a photographer cares about.

The name "Inverza" is rooted in the German word Wolkeninversion (cloud inversion), the condition where a sea of clouds fills valleys while mountain ridges rise above like islands. It is the signature condition of the Alps, where the app is developed.

Features

• AI Weather ChatAsk about shooting conditions in plain language. Powered by Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT, with a built-in model option.
• 16 Condition DetectorsDawn, afterglow, golden clouds, ground fog, hoarfrost, aurora, fresh snow, dramatic storms, cloud inversion, Milky Way, belt of Venus, reflecting waters, soft light, full moon silhouette, Brocken spectre, lenticular clouds.
• AR Sky View (ARKit)Point the camera at the sky and see sun, moon, and Milky Way paths drawn onto the live view, tracked with ARKit. Scrub through time to preview where the sky will be tonight, switch between lenses by focal length to audition the frame, and compose before the event happens. Deep-red night mode protects dark adaptation.
• Horizon PathsThe real 360° terrain horizon of any saved spot, with sun and moon arcs drawn across it. Read off the minute the moon clears a specific ridge, from your sofa, weeks ahead. A Photographer/Subject toggle re-renders the horizon from either vantage.
• Photo SubjectsPair a spot with a separate subject pin up to 50 km away (a peak, a lighthouse, a barn). OpenStreetMap classifies the subject, its own terrain horizon and light windows are computed, and distant subjects get a second forecast at their coordinates.
• Raw Weather Data & Interactive ChartsEvery raw forecast value behind the predictions, surfaced in one panel. Tap any value to explore it as an interactive 7-day chart with pinch zoom, weather condition markers, and day, golden-hour, and night shading tied to the real sunset geometry of the location.
• Raw Data AlertsBuild custom alerts on the exact values you care about: cloud base below the summit, wind under 10 km/h, fresh snow above 5 cm. Notifications are time-sensitive, so a dawn alert reaches you even during Sleep Focus.
• Shadow MappingGPU-accelerated terrain shadows on a vector polygon overlay. See where light and shadow fall at any time of day, computed from NASA SRTM elevation data on Apple's Metal compute kernels.
• 3D Shadow MapTilt the camera up to 85 degrees to see how shadow lines drape across real terrain elevation, helping predict exactly when a peak, valley, or coastline falls into golden light.
• Photo Spot MapDiscover viewpoints through geotagged photos, with sunrise and sunset direction lines overlaid on terrain shadow maps.
• Auto-Selected Regional ModelsOpen-Meteo's best-match strategy consults the right model for each location: HRRR (3 km, North America), ICON-D2 (2.2 km) and ICON-EU (7 km, Europe), ECMWF IFS (~9 km, medium-range global), GFS (13 km, global fallback). 15-minute resolution where available.
• METAR Cross-CheckReal-time ground truth from the nearest airport station (NOAA AWC), cross-referenced against model predictions. Confirmed conditions are upgraded to a "Live" tier.
• Marine & Water-Body AwarenessOpen-Meteo Marine sea-surface temperatures power coastal advection-fog detection (SF Bay, UK coast, Pacific Northwest). Inland water-temperature estimates from recent air-temperature history drive steam-fog detection on calm autumn dawns.
• Aerosol & Air-Quality DataHourly aerosol optical depth, PM10, and Saharan-dust readings (Open-Meteo Air Quality) feed Soft Light scoring - the dreamy particle-softened golden hour.
• Forecast EvolutionPrevious-run analysis compares consecutive model runs - drifting forecasts get a confidence penalty, stable predictions earn more trust.
• Smart Alerts (Multi-Location)One alert can track several locations at once - aurora across Tromso, Reykjavik, and Lapland, for example - and notify you whichever site lights up first. Push notifications, no ads, no tracking.
• Haptic FeedbackTaptic Engine pulses on the shadow timeline scrubber, condition badge carousel, and pull-to-refresh confirmations.

Pricing

Screenshots

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Inverza

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Marcel Strelow, founder & developer. Free to use in coverage with credit.

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Quotable claims

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• "The Swiss Army knife of weather apps for photographers."One $4.99/year subscription covers forecasting, 16 condition detectors, AR composition previews, terrain horizon charts, GPU shadow mapping, photo spot discovery, raw data charts, and custom alerts. There is no feature tier above it.
• "The only weather app we know of that combines AR, AI, and photo spot planning with AI-powered condition detection."Planning apps do geometry, model browsers show raw weather, and a handful of apps detect conditions. Inverza is, to our knowledge, the only one doing composition (AR Sky, Horizon Paths), interpretation (16 detectors with confidence tiers), and conversation (AI chat) in a single tool.
• "Where generic weather apps answer 'will it rain?', Inverza answers 'will the light be worth getting up at 4 a.m.?'"The app's core framing. Every detector outputs a confidence score, a time window, and a plain-language explanation of why.
• "An interpretation engine, not a model browser."Inverza auto-selects the right regional model per location and blends eight data streams - global model, horizon clouds in four directions, air quality, marine temperatures, landcover, live airport observations, high-res regional models, and previous model runs - into one answer: should I go?
• "Sixteen conditions most weather apps have never heard of."Brocken spectre, Belt of Venus, cloud inversion, lenticular clouds, hoarfrost, afterglow, valley fog, Milky Way visibility, and more - each with its own detection logic and terrain awareness.
• "It can tell you the minute the moon clears a specific ridge, weeks in advance."Horizon Paths computes the real terrain horizon of any saved spot from elevation data and draws sun and moon arcs across it; AR Sky then previews the exact frame on location, per lens.
• "No server, no account, no ads."Inverza has no backend. Weather queries go straight from the phone to the data providers; saved spots and API keys never leave the device. No tracking, no data resale.
• "Built by one landscape photographer, in the Alps, for his own camera bag."Inverza is designed, coded, and field-tested by a single developer who shoots the conditions it predicts. The app's name comes from the cloud inversion, the signature condition of its home mountains.

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Story angles

• The alert that became an appA landscape photographer builds a wake-me-for-the-light alert, then keeps adding every tool he wished existed: AR composition previews, terrain horizon charts, raw data graphs. A one-person product shaped entirely by personal use.
• Planning vs. the momentDoes forecasting the light kill the magic of photography, or free you up for it? Inverza's position: solving the geometry in advance buys presence in the field. The most famous counterexample, Ansel Adams' unmetered ninety-second Moonrise, is really a preparation story in disguise.
• An indie app marketed with a short filmInstead of a text tutorial, Inverza's features debut in "Stealing Moonrise", an AI-made (and labelled) short film in which a time-travelling photographer tries to take the world's most famous landscape photo an hour before Ansel Adams. See the blog for the companion post.
• Weather apps grow upThe shift from model browsers (read the raw data yourself) to interpretation engines (the app tells you what the data means for your use case), with Inverza as a case study for the photography niche.

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