How tough is the toughest weather station?

When avalanche rescue needs reliable data, only one weather station can send it from under the snow pack with a 12+ km (7.5+ miles) wireless range.

Extreme weather requires tough hardware

In meteorology, the real difference between professional and commercial hardware is not only in measurement accuracy, long-term measurement stability and precision, but also in toughness, robustness and survivability. The fine line between extreme weather and a weather disaster is the damage caused and loss of life. Timely and accurate decisions require accurate and reliable data in the most extreme weather situations. This is what sets apart professional meteorological equipment from the rest and enables the prevention of disasters and loss of life. MeteoHelix IoT Pro weather stations donated to the Slovak Avalanche Service are proving their worth against all existing weather station hardware.

Buried alive under the snow

Buried under wind blown snow pack for over two months at 1727 meters (5669 feet) above sea level, the MeteoHelix kept tirelessly measuring and sending wireless data every 10 minutes to Sigfox gateways installed by SimpleCell and located 12.5 km, 16.5 km, 20 km, and 32,5 km away. The 3+ meter high snow pack here was unexpected in this warmest winter on record.

Over the two months, tons of wind blown snow consolidated and with a crushing force devastated other meteorological equipment. Under this force, the stainless steel mounting bracket holding the MeteoHelix was bent over like a sheet of paper as shown in the accompanying photo. The MeteoHelix survived without damage. After being dug out and over the next two days as temperatures rose above freezing, the snow packed around its sensors from the burial thawed. The MeteoHelix IoT Pro returned to measuring atmospheric temperatures (instead of snow pack temperature) for which it was designed and which it preforms better and more accurately than any other professional meteorological weather station due to its special patented helical solar radiation shield design.

While buried under snow, the MeteoHelix weather station measured snowpack temperature. Around March 13, 2020 (6 days before being dug out) the snowpack temperature became a steady 0°C as the snow started its spring time melt.

As soon as the MeteoHelix was dug out, it began measuring solar irradiation and soon after the snow Fell away from its sensors, it began reading the correct air temperatures.

Can LoRaWAN Networks Transform the Indian Meteorological Department into a World Leader in the Fight Against Global Warming?

Advantages of LoRaWAN Star-on-Star vs. LTE, GSM, NB-IoT, CAT-M1 and others:

• Extend wireless network coverage 10+ km past existing LTE, GSM, NB-IoT, CAT-M1 coverage with LoRaWAN LTE gateways

• LoRaWAN gateway affordability ensures deployment of double and triple-redundant wireless networks affordably due to its Star-on-Star approach vs. mesh networking.

• Meteorological sensor nodes communicate with multiple gateways, ensuring reliability of wireless data transmission and interference resistance. In case of a gateway failure, data is automatically rerouted via other gateways.

• LoRaWAN networks allow the addition of unlimited nodes without rebuilding the wireless infrastructure.

• LoRaWAN networks naturally permit network expansion and do not require trained personnel in the field to support network operation since gateways act as only message forwarders (data pass-through) and sensor nodes do not join/pair with gateways, but directly with the application running at the Met Department.

WMO Precision Wireless LoRaWAN Meteorological Sensors

For meteorological network building to the highest WMO measurement standards.

• MeteoWind® IoT Pro exceeds WMO/NWS standards by 5X, making it maintenance free for a lifetime.

• MeteoHelix® IoT Pro meets WMO/NWS standards and due to its helical shield is maintenance free for 2X longer than any other temperature humidity sensor solution.

• MeteoRain® IoT Compact is designed for high-density deployment and affordability. Its measuring mechanism is more accurate than any other rain gauge under 1000 EURO. Soon to be released MeteoRain® IoT Pro with a larger and taller collector bucket will exceed all WMO and NWS measurement standards.

Zu vermeidende Smart-City-Fehler: die Frage der großen gegen genaue Daten

DIE SMART-CITY-FEHLER DIE ZU VERMEINDEN SIND: DIE QUALITÄT VON DATENSÄTZEN MIT NIERIGER QUALITÄT WIRD NICHT VERBESSERT, WENN DIE DATENSÄTZE GRÖßER WERDEN

Wenn Sensornetzwerke nicht dem grundlegenden Messstandards entsprechen, werden Smart-City-Sensornetzwerke zu einem Geldfresser. Sie können großartige Ideen in eine sinnlose Infrastruktur und Wolken von falschen oder bedeutungslosen Daten verwandeln.

Zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts begannen Städte im Rahmen der vierten industriellen Revolution (Industrie 4.0), mit Smart-City-Projekten zu experimentieren, noch bevor der Begriff Internet-of-Things (IoT) populär wurde. Jetzt, auf dem Höhepunkt des durch künstliche Intelligenz und Datenverarbeitung ausgelösten IoT-Hype, werden die ersten Anzeichen für die Notwendigkeit, die grundlegenden Messstandards von  NIST, WMO/CIMO, NWS/NOAA, ASTM und ISO zu treffen, offensichtlich.

Das klarste Beispiel für die Notwendigkeit, grundlegende Messstandards zu treffen, kann man in Überwachung des Stadtklimas finden, da die Städte eine Reihe von Herausforderungen an die genaue Messung der Lufttemperatur stellen. Die Fußwege und Gebäudewände in der Nähe von Wetterstationen reflektieren und strahlen Sonnenenergie viel stärker als Grasrasen und aus jeder Richtung auf einen Temperatursensor ab, was zu großen Fehlern bei der Lufttemperaturmessung führt. Da die Verteilung der Fehler bei der Lufttemperaturmessung nicht symmetrisch rund um tatsächlichen Temperaturwert und für jede Wetterstationsinstallation einzigartig ist, hat die Praxis gezeigt, dass sich die Qualität von Daten geringer Qualität nicht mit der Größe des Datensatzes verbessert.

Die Qualität der Lufttemperaturmessung kann leicht beurteilt werden, indem die Sonneneinstrahlung (W / m²) und die Lufttemperatur (° C / ° F) zusammen eingezeichnet werden. Lufttemperatursensoren niedriger Qualität zeigen zusammen mit billigen Sonnenschutzschildern eine Erhöhung der Lufttemperatur um +0,5 ° C (+1 ° F) oder mehr innerhalb weniger Minuten, nachdem die Sonne von hinter her Wolken oder die Wetterstation aus dem Schatten hervorkommt.

Manufacturer of high-quality and affordable meteorological solutions for Smart-City environmental sensor networks including the MeteoHelix IoT, MeteoRain IoT and MeteoWind IoT wireless weather station and sensors.