Comparison

SOS Explorer vs Tornado Radar

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

SOS Explorer

Explore interactive animated datasets of Earth and space phenomena, from planetary rings to climate change models. This app brings complex environmental processes to life in an intuitive and captivating way, making learning accessible anywhere.

Highlights
  • Streaming high-resolution datasets
  • Educational videos
  • User-guided tours
  • Analysis tools
  • 100+ datasets
  • Global and flat map views
Features
Read full description

SOS Explorer (SOSx) Mobile is a free, flat screen mobile app version of the popular NOAA Science On a Sphere (SOS). This revolutionary software takes SOS datasets, usually only seen on a 6-foot sphere in large museum spaces, and makes them accessible, portable, and interactive anywhere. SOSx Mobile can immerse the user in animated images such as Saturn’s rings, atmospheric storms, climate change, and ocean temperatures to help explain sometimes complex environmental processes in a way that is intuitive, captivating, interactive, and entertaining. A desktop version, called SOS Explorer, is also available. Thank you for using SOS Explorer (SOSx) Mobile. We are committed to continually improving our software and providing you with an engaging and educational experience. We hope you enjoy the new features and enhancements in version 1.2! Please continue to share your feedback with us as we work on improvements. We appreciate your patience and support. Features include: • Streaming, high-resolution datasets • Educational videos • User-guided tours • Analysis tools • 100+ datasets • Global and flat map views Sample datasets: • Recent Hurricane Seasons • Bird Migration • Earthquake Activity • Snow and Ice • Ocean Currents • Historical Tsunamis • Facebook Friendships • Air Traffic • Planets of the Solar System • Climate Change Models • 360 Underwater Imagery • Narrated Movies • ...and so much more!

About

Tornado Radar

Discover campus events and ways to get involved. Filter by organization or activity, and add events to your personal calendar to ensure you don't miss out on university happenings.

Highlights
  • Discover campus events
  • Filter by organization
  • Filter by activity
  • Add events to calendar
  • Increase student engagement
Features
Read full description

Use the Concordia University - Texas Events app to find out what events are happening and find out how you can get involved on campus!  • Sort by campus organizations hosting events • Find events tagged with your favorite activities • Add events to your calendar so you don’t miss out! Powered by Presence. Presence provides a web and mobile platform to universities and colleges to help increase student engagement, assess involvement, allocate funding efficiently, and improve retention through simplifying and digitizing processes, collecting, structuring, and analyzing involvement data, and provides tools to help reach and engage more students.

Screenshots

SOS Explorer4 screens
Tornado Radar3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Tornado Radar at 5.0 against SOS Explorer's 4.7. Tornado Radar also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 86%) and update cadence (every 5 months vs every 11 months). SOS Explorer's advantage is ratings volume (20 vs 4). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tornado Radar holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SOS Explorer has 20 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 86% of SOS Explorer's written reviews are positive against 100% of Tornado Radar's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SOS Explorer ships an update every 11 months, Tornado Radar every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
SOS Explorer versus Tornado Radar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSOS ExplorerTornado Radar
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (20 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews85.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings20 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 11 monthsEvery 5 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS12.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size249 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUniversity of Colorado BoulderCheck I'm Here, LLC

Customer experience

SOS Explorer

All ratings20 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive85.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative14.3%

Tornado Radar

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

SOS Explorer

No in-app purchases

None

Tornado Radar

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SOS Explorer free?
SOS Explorer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tornado Radar free?
Tornado Radar is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, SOS Explorer or Tornado Radar?
Tornado Radar is rated higher. SOS Explorer averages 4.7 out of 5 from 20 ratings, while Tornado Radar averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do SOS Explorer or Tornado Radar have ads?
Neither SOS Explorer nor Tornado Radar shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SOS Explorer or Tornado Radar?
SOS Explorer ships an update every 11 months, and Tornado Radar every 5 months. Most recently, SOS Explorer was updated on October 9, 2026 and Tornado Radar on October 12, 2026.

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