Drought Mitigation and Management CONTRIBUTOR'S coPY Suresh Kumar S.P.S. Tanwar Akath Singh Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), ICAR, JodhpurPublished by ‘SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHERS (INDIA) Jodhpur ~ Delhi ~ 5 A, New Pali Road ‘© 4806/24, Ansari Road P.O. Box 91 Daryagan} Jodhpur - 342 001 INDIA "New Delhi - 110.002 INDIA (© 2017, Scientific Publishers (India) All rights reserved. No part of this publication or the information contained herein may be ‘adapted, abridged, translated, stored in a retrieval system, computer system, ‘graphic or other systems of transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, ‘optical, digital, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written prior permission from the publisher. Any breach will attract legal action and prosecution without further notice. 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Meena INTRODUCTION Agrometeorology, abbreviated from agricultural meteorology, puts the science of meteorology to the service of agriculture, in its various forms and facets, to help with the sensible use of land, to accelerate the production of food, and to avoid the irreversible abuse of land resources (Smith 1970). The science of agro meteorology has great practical utility in protection against, or avoidance of adverse climate risks (crop losses due to drought or floods). Weather elements which influence agricultural operations and crop production can be forecast for different time spans; hailstorm, tornados, and flash flood can be forecast up to 12 hours in advance. Based on the forecasts of these elements, decisions can be made in advance in agricultural operations and planning so as to make the best use of favourable weather conditions. However, agrometeorological information can be used in efficient land use planning; determining suitable crops for @ region; risk analysis of climate hazards and profit calculations in farming; production and harvest forecasts; and in adoption of farming methods and choice Of farm machinery. Agrometeorological observatory is a place where all the necessary instruments are maintained to observe and record various weather parameters at specific time interval. Each agrometeorological station should be fited in a place which is representative of natural conditions and agricultural characteristics of the region in which it is located (Bernardi 1983). CLASSIFICATION OF AGROMET OBSERVATORIES Depending on the availability of instruments and number of weather elements observed agrometeorological observatories are classified into three major (A, B and C) and three minor (D, E and F) classes (Sahu et al 2012). et el lt OY Scientist (Agril. Meteorology), Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur-342003 Email:hmmeena82@gmail.comAgro Meteorological Observatory ; 85 Class A Observatory: These are provided with eye reading instruments as well as self-recording instruments. The observations are recorded every hour round the clock. Class B Observatory: Instruments are similar to Class A observatory but observations are made at least twice a day. Class C Observatory: Instruments are similar to Class A observatory but observations are recorded only once a day. Class D, E and F observatories: These have less number of instruments or are non-instrumentals. Fig. 1. Agrometeorological observatory at CAZRI Jodhpur SELECTION OF SITE FOR AGROMETEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY ‘The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) which is the principal government agency in all matters pertaining to meteorology in India, recommends the following procedure in the selection of site for meteorological observatory. © Site should be well exposed, bare, levelled plot taking care of the proposed buildings, roads, canals, etc., which affect the exposure. When the observatory is to be located in an agricultural farm, it should be as far as possible so chosen that it is the representative of principal agricultural soils of the area. © The site should be free from water logging, high structures, tall trees and hills, especially on the east and west as these cast shadows on the instruments. The above obstructions should be away by at least ten times their height. Where radiation or sunshine observations are envisaged, there should be no substantial objects to the east or west subtending anAgro Meteorological Observatory 87 Cloud amount Oktas (1/8 of the Visual observed inthe At the time of observation celestial dome) observatory Dew Dew Gauge Millimetre (mm) ‘One time during winter season before sunrise (install after sunset of previous day) (Srivastava and Tyagi 2015) Fig. 2. Single stevenson screen INSTRUMENTS FOR MEASURING, WEATHER PARAMETERS Stevenson screen: It is a wooden box in which maximum and minimum thermometers are placed inside the screen horizontally whereas dry bulb and wet bulb are hanged vertically (Fig. 2). It is installed at 1.22 meter height from ground surface and provides all essential conditions for the exposure of the thermometers like free access of air to bulb of the thermometers and protect the thermometers from the direct exposure to sunrays and raindrops. The maximum. thermometer is a mercury thermometer with a constriction in the bore near the bulb and it measures maximum temperature in a day. Minimum thermometer indicates lowest temperature of day and it is an alcoholic thermometer having a light narrow index. Only alcoholic thermometer is used for measuring minimum temperature because alcohol freezes at -130°C whereas mercury freezes at 39°C. The screen is having two other thermometers also which are placed vertically and are used to work out the relative humidity, dew point temperature and vapour pressure. One is mounted a little lower than the other and has its bulb covered with a piece of muslin or wicking that can be wetted for observation. It is wet bulb thermometer. When the instrument is swung freely in the air or is88 Drought Mitigation and Management aerated by a fan, the loss of heat required to evaporate water from the wet-bulb ‘will cause it to show a lower temperature reading. The difference between the readings is called the wet-bulb depression. When the dry-bulb temperature, the ‘wet bulb depression, and the atmospheric pressure are known, any of the standard expressions of humidity can be determined from a series of hygrometric tables. Soil thermometers ‘These are mercury in glass type thermometers which are used for recording soil temperature at desired depths. The stem of the thermometers is bent at 120° just near the bulb. These thermometers are held by iron stands in inclined position making 60° angle with soil surface. Soil temperature plays a major role in the movement of water and nutrients from the soil. The surface of soil is warmer than the air above, so that surface thermometer is used for measuring surface soil temperature (Fig. 3). Fig. 3. Soil thermometers at various soil depths. US Class A Open Pan Evaporimeter It is a device that measures the amount of water evaporated in certain time froma surface of water. It has a cylindrical reservoir of 120 cm diameter and 25 cm height (Fig. 4a). The reservoir rests on a wooden platform (120 em x 120 em) placed on ground. It is covered with wire mesh for avoiding of water loss by birds, Water loss by evaporation in a day is measured by accurately adding, water with help of measuring cylinder up to tip of the point in the stilling wel. Its measured at 8.30 a.m. Ordinary rain gauge Ordinary rain gauge is a device used for measuring the amount of rainfall in a day (mm or cm or inch). [tis installed at 30 cm height above ground (Fig. 4b). It comprises a funnel with five inches diameter in the mouth, a container to which| Agro Meteorological Observatory 89 | the funnel is shouldered and finally a metallic cylinder that holds both funnel and container. A measuring flask is used for the measurement of amount of rain water received by container through the funnel. It is also measured at 8.30 a.m. Now-a- days, sensor or self-recording rain gauge or automatic weather station can measure rainfall hourly or any time interval. Fig. 5. Campbell stock sunshine recorder Bright Sunshine Recorder ‘The sunshine recorder is installed on a masonry pillar of 3.04 meter height from the ground, It works on the principle of convex lens. A convex lens formed by a spherical mounted sphere focuses the sun rays coming parallel to its principle90 Drought Mitigation and Management axis at a distance equal to its principle focus. When the sun rays fall on the glass, a strip of prepared paper held in a grove at the focus length starts burning. The card is made of celluloid with specific width and length. When the sun does not shine, the burn point of the paper the sun light hours (duration) of the sun shine can be recorded. During the year, we use three types of sunshine cards according to the season, During winter season (13 Oct -28" Feb) short curve card is used in the upper groove and from 13" April to 31% August long curve sunshine card is used in the lower groove, and for other seasons straight card is used (Fig. 5) during the period of 3 Sept- 14" Oct and 1" March-11" April. Wind vane Wind vane is installed over a wooden plank at 3.08 m height and fixed on a wooden post (Fig. 6). It is an instrument that indicates the direction of wind. It consists essentially of a broad arrow head placed in ball bearings to enable the arrow to move freely in the horizontal plane. The arrow indicates the direction of wind.-There are two ways of expressing wind direction that are by sides as North, South, etc., and by degrees as 360°, 110° etc. Cup Anemometer Anemometers are instruments used for the measurement of wind velocity. The most common type anemometer is the Robinson Cup Anemometer. Either three or four metal hemispheres are mounted on arms which rotate freely about a vertical axis (Fig. 6). The vertical spindle, about which the cup rotate is connected to a mechanical counter called cyclometer through a gear system from which the number of rotations are counted and converted into speed calibrated in knvhr. Digital anemometer gives more precise and accurate reading. Fig. 6. Cup anemometer and wind vane Assman Pyschrometer It is used to measure air temperature and relative humidity under crop field. It basically consists of two thermometers, one wet bulb and one dry bulbAgro Meteorological Observatory 91 thermometer, and a fan, The fan is at the top. The bulbs of the two thermometers are covered by metal sleeves whose outer surface is coated with chromium (Fig. 7). These are thermally insulated from each other through a central tube and has a range from 0 to 60°C. When the fan is kept on, the air through inner sleeves (metal sleeves provided at the bulb of each thermometer) and annular spaces enters the apparatus. The air travels through the central tube and goes out of the apparatus through the slits provided at the top near the fan. The fan is kept on for an interval of approximately 3 minutes, Fig. 7. Assman pyschrometer. Leaf wetness sensor The leaf wetness periods are recorded using leaf wetness sensor. The, sensor is essentially an electronic leaf. The output from sensor is in mV. This output is drastically reduced if there are any water/rain drops on the sensor. These events are counted at short intervals of few minutes to get the duration for which the leaf Was wet. The wetness period is converted into some index developed under control/laboratory conditions for disease incidence versus threshold index value {0 advise on weather dependence spray schedule for effective and economic control disease (Bapuji Rao and Rao 2012) Soil heat flux The flux of heat into and out of soil can be measured directly by ‘thermal flux plates”. Soil heat flux plate may be either disk or wafer shaped. Designers try to Keep the size of the plates small so as to minimize the distortion in the oil temperature field and to minimize trapping that these impermeable object must cause when emplaced in soil (Rosenberg, 1974). A typical model of a soil flux place is shown in Fig. 8. Fig. 8. Soil heat flux plateDrought Mitigation and Management imeter enerally used to quantify accurate and minor chan apotranspiration, and other Mini-lysimeters are amount of soil moisture content, drainage water, ev water balance components within a soil monolith. Fig. 9. Mini-lysimeter Fig. 10. Automatic weather station at CAZRI JodhpurAgro Meteorological Observatory 93 AGRO-AUTOMATIC WEATHER STATION (AWS) The AWS consists of a data los Beer, set of sensors, power supply, solar panel, Mounting stand and other accessories (Fig. 10). The sensors are installed for and speed, soil and air temperature, global lemperature, soil moisture and rainfall. Global 'yranometer. Rainfall is measured with tipping located in such a place that it represents the f the watershed area, The AWS records atic conditions of weather data on hourly basis. REFERENCES Bapuji Rao B and Rao VUM 2012 Crop-weather dynamics, for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, 350p. Bemardi M 1983 Manual of meteorological instruments and meteorological and Phonological observations. C.1.L.S.S., Niger. Rosenberg JN 1974 Microclimate: & Sons Sahu DD, Chopada MC and Kacha HL 2012 Practical agrometeorology. Agrobios (India), Jodhpur. Smith LP 1970 Aims and extent of agricultural meteorology. Agricultural Meteorology 7193-196 Srivastava AK and Tyagi PK Publishing Agency (India), WMO 2010 Guide to http://www.wmo.int/pa; Central Research Institute the biological Environment. New York: John Willey 2015 Practical Agricultural Meteorology, New India agricultural meteorological practice, WMO vol, 134. \ges/prog/wep/agm/gamp/documents/WM (O_No134_en.pdf