How Does Weather Station Work?
The outdoor sensing instruments are mounted on a 10 metre tall mast at the NRA Offices
in Trentham. There are three outdoor sensors, all shown above, a
temperature/humidity sensor, a wind vane/anenometer and a rain gauge which has
been modified to record in
0.1mm steps instead of the more usual 1.00mm steps.
There is also an outdoor webcam mounted in a special weatherproof housing on the mast which takes images
of the riflerange/flying field looking in a Southerly direction.
The data from these sensors & the webcam is transmitted down special cables to a console
unit [also shown above]
mounted on the office wall. The console unit also senses indoor
temperature/humidity and
barometric pressure. All the data generated is sent every minute via a
serial cable to a computer[which runs 24/7 ] where a
special weather software program
called
Weather Display
generates the web pages which you see. Every 15 minutes,
fresh data is uploaded to
the website
via modem.
The data from the webcam is sent by cable to one of the computers USB ports.
The whole process is automated except for continuing upgrades to the program
which happen two or three times a month.
The
3Com Home Connect
digital webcam takes a shot of the sky
looking in a Southerly
direction 10 seconds before the upload. The picture generated is uploaded along
with the rest of the data.
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