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5/11/2020 Weather station - Wikipedia

Weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with
instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric
conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to
study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include
temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind
direction, and precipitation amounts. Wind measurements are
taken with as few other obstructions as possible, while
temperature and humidity measurements are kept free from
direct solar radiation, or insolation. Manual observations are
taken at least once daily, while automated measurements are Weather station at Mildura Airport,
taken at least once an hour. Weather conditions out at sea are Victoria, Australia.
taken by ships and buoys, which measure slightly different
meteorological quantities such as sea surface temperature (SST),
wave height, and wave period. Drifting weather buoys outnumber their moored versions by a
significant amount.

Contents
Weather instruments
Exposure
Personal weather station
Home weather station
Dedicated ships
Dedicated buoys
Synoptic weather station
Networks
Global
United States
Southern Hemisphere
See also
References
External links

Weather instruments
Typical weather stations have the following instruments:

Thermometer for measuring air and sea surface temperature


Barometer for measuring atmospheric pressure
Hygrometer for measuring humidity
Anemometer for measuring wind speed
Pyranometer for measuring solar radiation

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Rain gauge for measuring liquid precipitation over a set


period of time.
Wind sock for measuring general wind speed and wind
direction
Wind vane, also called a weather vane or a weathercock: it
shows whence the wind is blowing.

In addition, at certain automated airport weather stations,


additional instruments may be employed, including:

Present Weather/Precipitation Identification Sensor for


identifying falling precipitation
Disdrometer for measuring drop size distribution
Transmissometer for measuring visibility The NOAA weather station at Wake
Ceilometer for measuring cloud ceiling Island harbor measures and
transmits data on wind speed,
More sophisticated stations may also measure the ultraviolet atmospheric pressure, air
index, leaf wetness, soil moisture, soil temperature, water temperature and tides.
temperature in ponds, lakes, creeks, or rivers, and occasionally
other data.

Exposure

Except for those instruments requiring direct exposure to the elements (anemometer, rain gauge),
the instruments should be sheltered in a vented box, usually a Stevenson screen, to keep direct
sunlight off the thermometer and wind off the hygrometer. The instrumentation may be specialized
to allow for periodic recording otherwise significant manual labour is required for record keeping.
Automatic transmission of data, in a format such as METAR, is also desirable as many weather
station's data is required for weather forecasting.

Personal weather station


A personal weather station is a set of weather measuring
instruments operated by a private individual, club, association,
or business (where obtaining and distributing weather data is not
a part of the entity's business operation). Personal weather
stations have become more advanced and can include many
different sensors to measure weather conditions. These sensors
can vary between models but most measure wind speed, wind
direction, outdoor and indoor temperatures, outdoor and indoor
humidity, barometric pressure, rainfall, and UV or solar
radiation. Other available sensors can measure soil moisture, soil
temperature, and leaf wetness. The quality, number of
instruments, and placement of personal weather stations can
vary widely, making the determination of which stations collect Roof-mounted weather station
accurate, meaningful, and comparable data difficult. There are a instruments
comprehensive number of retail weather stations available.

Personal weather stations typically involve a digital console that provides readouts of the data being
collected. These consoles may interface to a personal computer where data can be displayed, stored,
and uploaded to websites or data ingestion/distribution systems. Open-source weather stations are
available that are designed to be fully customizable by users.[1]

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Personal weather stations may be operated solely for the enjoyment and education of the owner,
while some owners share their results with others. They do this by manually compiling data and
distributing it, distributing data over the Internet, or sharing data via amateur radio. The Citizen
Weather Observer Program (CWOP) is a service which facilitates the sharing of information from
personal weather stations. This data is submitted through use of software, a personal computer, and
internet connection (or amateur radio) and are utilized by groups such as the National Weather
Service (NWS) when generating forecast models. Each weather station submitting data to CWOP will
also have an individual Web page that depicts the data submitted by that station. The Weather
Underground Internet site is another popular destination for the submittal and sharing of data with
others around the world. As with CWOP, each station submitting data to Weather Underground has a
unique Web page displaying their submitted data. The UK Met Office's Weather Observations
Website (WOW) also allows such data to be shared and displayed.[2]

Home weather station


Home weather stations include hygrometers, pyranometers, thermometers, barographs, and
barometers. Commonly wall mounted and made by manufacturers such as Airguide, Taylor,
Springfield, Sputnik and Stormoguide.

Dedicated ships
A weather ship was a ship stationed in the ocean as a platform for
surface and upper air meteorological measurements for use in
weather forecasting. It was also meant to aid in search and rescue
operations and to support transatlantic flights.[3][4] The
establishment of weather ships proved to be so useful during
World War II that the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO) established a global network of 13 weather ships in The weather ship MS Polarfront at
[3]
1948. Of the 12 left in operation in 1996, nine were located in sea.
the northern Atlantic Ocean while three were located in the
northern Pacific Ocean. The agreement of the weather ships
ended in 1990. Weather ship observations proved to be helpful in wind and wave studies, as they did
not avoid weather systems like merchant ships tended to and were considered a valuable resource.[5]
The last weather ship was MS Polarfront, known as weather station M ("jilindras") at 66°N, 02°E,
run by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. MS Polarfront was removed from service January 1,
2010. Since the 1960s this role has been largely superseded by satellites, long range aircraft and
weather buoys. Weather observations from ships continue from thousands of voluntary merchant
vessels in routine commercial operation; the Old Weather crowdsourcing project transcribes naval
logs from before the era of dedicated ships.

Dedicated buoys
Weather buoys are instruments which collect weather and oceanography data within the world's
oceans and lakes.[6][7][8] Moored buoys have been in use since 1951,[9] while drifting buoys have been
used since the late 1970s.[10] Moored buoys are connected with the seabed using either chains, nylon,
or buoyant polypropylene.[11] With the decline of the weather ship, they have taken a more primary
role in measuring conditions over the open seas since the 1970s.[12] During the 1980s and 1990s, a
network of buoys in the central and eastern tropical Pacific ocean helped study the El Niño-Southern
Oscillation.[13] Moored weather buoys range from 1.5–12 metres (5–40 ft) in diameter,[11] while
drifting buoys are smaller, with diameters of 30–40 centimetres (12–16 in).[14] Drifting buoys are the
dominant form of weather buoy in sheer number, with 1250 located worldwide.[10] Wind data from
buoys has smaller error than that from ships.[15] There are differences in the values of sea surface
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temperature measurements between the two platforms as well,


relating to the depth of the measurement and whether or not the
water is heated by the ship which measures the quantity.[16]

Synoptic weather station


Synoptic weather stations are instruments which collect
meteorological information at synoptic time 00h00, 06h00,
12h00, 18h00 (UTC) and at intermediate synoptic hours 03h00,
09h00, 15h00, 21h00 (UTC).

The common instruments of measure are anemometer, wind


vane, pressure sensor, thermometer, hygrometer, and rain gauge.

The weather measures are formatted in special format and Weather buoy operated by the
transmit to WMO to help the weather forecast model. NOAA National Data Buoy Center

Networks
A variety of land-based weather station networks have been set up
globally. Some of these are basic to analyzing weather fronts and
pressure systems, such as the synoptic observation network, while
others are more regional in nature, known as mesonets.

Global
Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP)[17]
Weather Underground Personal Weather Stations (https://www.wund
erground.com/weatherstation/overview.asp)[18]

United States
Arizona Meteorological Network (AZMET)[19]
Central Pennsylvania Volunteer Weather Station Network[20]
Florida Automated Weather Network (FAWN)[21] A Synoptic automatic
Georgia Environmental Monitoring Network (GAEMN)[22] weather station
Indiana Purdue Automated Agricultural Weather Station Network
(PAAWS)[23]
Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM)[24]
MesoWest[25]
Michigan Automated Weather Network (MAWN)[26]
Missouri Weather Stations[27]
National Weather Service Cooperative Observer (COOP) program[28]
New York State Mesonet[29]
Oklahoma Mesonet[30]
The Pacific Northwest Cooperative Agricultural Weather Network[31]

Southern Hemisphere
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Antarctic Automatic Weather Stations Project[32]


Australia: Bureau of Meteorology AWS network.[33]
Australia: Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia[34]
Australia: Lower Murray Water Automatic Weather Station Network[35]

See also
Global Telecommunications System
Lightning detection
Surface weather observation and surface weather analysis
Weather radar
Weather satellite
Wind profiler

References
1. Verbelen, Yannick (2016). "WeatherStation 3" (https://web.archive.org/web/20170416130000/http
s://circuitmaker.com/Projects/Details/Yannick-Verbelen/WeatherStation-3). CircuitMaker. Archived
from the original (https://circuitmaker.com/Projects/Details/Yannick-Verbelen/WeatherStation-3)
on 2017-04-16. Retrieved 16 April 2017. "The firmware is under active development, and users
are encouraged to contribute to it by forking the repository on Github. An initiative to further
develop the hardware and make it commercially available is ongoing as spin-off project
OpenObservatory."
2. "WOW - A new weather website for everyone" (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archiv
e/2011/wow-website-to-launch). Met Office. 2011-02-11.
3. "Britain's First Weather Ship" (https://books.google.com/books?id=QtkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA136).
Popular Mechanics: 136. June 1948.
4. Malcolm Francis Willoughby (1980). The U.S. Coast Guard in World War II (https://books.google.
com/books?id=T5A9LCujs08C&pg=PA129). Arno Press. pp. 127–130. ISBN 978-0-405-13081-6.
5. Stanislaw R. Massel (1996). Ocean surface waves: their physics and prediction (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=8sHp9ml7G6YC&q=weather+ship+book&pg=PA371). World Scientific.
pp. 369–371. ISBN 978-981-02-2109-6. Retrieved 2011-01-18.
6. "Great Lakes buoys" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120618193247/http://www.bigbaywx.com/bu
oy.php). Archived from the original (http://www.bigbaywx.com/buoy.php/) on 2012-06-18.
Retrieved 2012-06-16.
7. Muskegon Lake buoy (http://www.gvsu.edu/wri/buoy/)
8. Crater Lake weather buoy (http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/weather/oclb.html/)
9. G. L. Timpe & N. Van de Voorde (October 1995). "NOMAD buoys: an overview of forty years of
use". OCEANS '95. MTS/IEEE. Challenges of Our Changing Global Environment. Conference
Proceedings. 1: 309–315. doi:10.1109/OCEANS.1995.526788 (https://doi.org/10.1109%2FOCEA
NS.1995.526788). ISBN 0-933957-14-9. S2CID 111274406 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/Corp
usID:111274406).
10. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (2009-04-15). "Ocean Motion and Surface
Currents" (http://oceanmotion.org/html/gatheringdata/buoysanddrifers.htm). Retrieved
2011-01-28.
11. National Data Buoy Center (2008-02-04). "Moored Buoy Program" (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0110103084317/http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/mooredbuoy.shtml). National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. Archived from the original (http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/mooredbuoy.s
html) on 2011-01-03. Retrieved 2011-01-29.

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12. National Research Council (U.S.). Ocean Science Committee, National Research Council (U.S.).
Study Panel on Ocean Atmosphere Interaction (1974). The role of the ocean in predicting climate:
a report of workshops conducted by Study Panel on Ocean Atmosphere Interaction under the
auspices of the Ocean Science Committee of the Ocean Affairs Board, Commission on Natural
Resources, National Research Council (https://books.google.com/books?id=2zQrAAAAYAAJ&pg
=PA40). National Academies. p. 40.
13. K. A. Browning; Robert J. Gurney (1999). Global energy and water cycles (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=DO5K1NK_ZewC&pg=PA62). Cambridge University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-521-
56057-3.
14. R. Lumpkin & M. Pazos (2010-06-08). "What's a Drifter?" (http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dac/gd
p_drifter.php). The Global Drifter Program. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
15. Bridget R. Thomas; Elizabeth C. Kent & Val R. Swail (2005). "Methods to Homogenize Wind
Speeds From Ships and Buoys" (ftp://ftp.wmo.int/Documents/PublicWeb/amp/mmop/documents/J
COMM-TR/J-TR-13-Marine-Climatology/REV1/joc1176.pdf) (PDF). International Journal of
Climatology. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 25 (7): 979–995. Bibcode:2005IJCli..25..979T (https://ui.ads
abs.harvard.edu/abs/2005IJCli..25..979T). doi:10.1002/joc.1176 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fjoc.1
176). Retrieved 2011-01-29.
16. William J. Emery; Richard E. Thomson (2001). Data analysis methods in physical oceanography
(https://books.google.com/books?id=A6ew-bJDIDIC&pg=PA24). Gulf Professional Publishing.
pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-0-444-50757-0.
17. Russ Chadwick. Citizen Weather Observer Program. (http://wxqa.com/) Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
18. Weather Underground. Personal Weather Station. (http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/
index.asp) Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
19. Arizona Meteorological Network. (http://ag.arizona.edu/AZMET/) Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
20. Pennsylvania State Climatologist. Central Pennsylvania Volunteer Weather Station Network. (htt
p://climate.met.psu.edu/data/volunteer.php) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/200805262112
13/http://climate.met.psu.edu/data/volunteer.php) 2008-05-26 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved
on 2008-06-11.
21. University of Florida. Florida Automated Weather Network. (http://fawn.ifas.ufl.edu/) Retrieved on
2008-06-11.
22. University of Georgia. Georgia Environmental Monitoring Network. (http://www.griffin.uga.edu/ae
mn/) Retrieved on 2010-09-01.
23. NCAR.Indiana Purdue Automated Agricultural Weather Station Network (PAAWS). (http://data.eo
l.ucar.edu/codiac/dss/id=85.033) Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
24. Iowa State University Department of Agronomy. Iowa Environmental Mesonet. (http://mesonet.agr
on.iastate.edu/) Retrieved on 2009-11-12.
25. University of Utah. MesoWest. (http://www.met.utah.edu/mesowest/) Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
26. Michigan State University. Michigan Automated Weather Network (MAWN). (http://www.agweathe
r.geo.msu.edu/mawn/) Retrieved on 2008-12-01.
27. University of Missouri Agricultural Electronic Bulletin Board. Missouri Weather Stations. (http://ag
ebb.missouri.edu/weather/stations/) Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
28. National Weather Service. Cooperative Observer Program. (https://www.weather.gov/om/coop/)
Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
29. University of Albany. NYS Mesonet. (http://nysmesonet.org/) Retrieved on 2017-05-21.
30. University of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Mesonet. (http://www.mesonet.org/) Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
31. AgriMet: The Pacific Northwest Cooperative Agricultural Weather Network. (https://www.usbr.gov/
pn/agrimet/aginfo/station_params.html) Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
32. Automatic Weather Stations Project. Antarctic Automatic Weather Stations Project. (http://amrc.ss
ec.wisc.edu/aws.html) Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
33. Bureau of Meteorology. Automatic Weather Stations for Agricultural and Other Applications. (htt
p://www.bom.gov.au/inside/services_policy/pub_ag/aws/aws.shtml) Retrieved on 2008-06-11.

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34. Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia. Department of Agriculture and Food
Western Australia Weather Stations. (http://agspsrv34.agric.wa.gov.au/climate/livedata/sumpage
s.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20080819031510/http://agspsrv34.agric.wa.gov.au/c
limate/livedata/sumpages.htm) 2008-08-19 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
35. Lower Murray Water Resources. Lower Murray Water Automatic Weather Station Network. (http://
www.lmw.vic.gov.au/LMWAWS.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20080720234317/htt
p://www.lmw.vic.gov.au/LMWAWS.htm) 2008-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2008-
06-11.

External links
Citizen Weather Observer Program (http://www.wxqa.com/)
Initial Guidance to Obtain Representative Meteorological Observations at Urban Sites, by Tim R.
Oke (http://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/IMOP/publications/IOM-81/IOM-81-UrbanMetObs.pdf)
International Weather Watchers Observer Handbook (http://www.weathergraphics.com/dl/obsma
n.pdf)
NWS Cooperative Observer Program (http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/coop/)
NWS Observing Handbook No. 2: Cooperative Station Observations (http://www.nws.noaa.gov/o
m/coop/Publications/coophandbook2.pdf)

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