MeteoShield® Professional wins Silver and People's Choice at the Creativepool Annual 2018 design awards

Precision can be beautiful. MeteoShield® Professional, a breakthrough in near-surface atmospheric air temperature measurement seems to also be turning heads. The one-of-a-kind patented helical design of a solar shield for weather station temperature sensors won silver and people's choice award in the product / industrial category at the Creativepool Annual 2018 design awards. This year, the Annual saw over 2,000 entries and over 20,000 votes cast for people’s choice award.

MeteoShield Professional® is able to deliver temperature accuracies better than many fan-ventilated radiation shields without the need for a fan. Offering an unsurpassed combination of accuracy and reliability makes it ideally suitable for automatic weather observation systems (AWOS) and automatic weather stations (AWS). "It is the most affordable solution for accurate atmospheric air temperature measurement" in the words of designer and BARANI DESIGN Technologies founder & CTO, Jan Barani.

Based on this helical design, MeteoHelix IoT Pro micro-weather station was also awarded the silver prize as part of SURVIA's Grand Prize winning precision agriculture solution at TECHAGRO 2018. 

Finding our climate extremes rests on one man's shoulders

One of the driest places on earth, situated 5000 meters above sea level with a barren landscape reminiscent of Mars is not a place for vacationers nor any livings things. Yet one man's quest for science will soon bring him to this extra-terrestrial Atacama Plateau between the border of Chile and Bolivia.

Obsessed by exploration from a young age, he is not a typical tourist, nor does he pick the typical vacation spots. It is not a coincidence that his first research adventure landed him in the middle of nowhere to challenge Mongolia's lowest temperature on record, a staggering -55.6 °C, from a little know desert village named Zuungobi. It is the coldest desert village in the world outside of Antarctica. 

After months of meticulous research in the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) database, Orban found his second vacation spot, the Atacama Plateau. A spot known for the clearest air and the highest recorded UV index... he makes sure to pack sunscreen. As a seasoned meteorological observer of the Romanian Meteorological Administration he has a trained eye for finding weather extremes. His research is planned for 6 - 7 days of continuous measurement with a data logger and temperature sensor housed inside a helical radiation shield donated by BARANI DESIGN Technologies. Other supporting sensors will include a meteorological alcohol thermometer and digital precision thermometer. 

He is aware of the dangers that lie ahead. "I will travel alone, unsupported. Some of the days I will sleep outside, nearby my small meteo station at over 5,000 m, therefore it needs good planning and proper acclimatization. I will take with me mainly dry foods and thermoses for keeping the water liquid in the freezing nights. Very few animals are living in this high desert ecosystem, it means predator attacks are unlikely. The lack of water and oxygen will be the main difficulties, the cold and the UV only secondary, as those can be fenced off by proper clothing/ sheltering."

More details about Orban Zsombor's quest to find earth's climate extremes can be found on his blog website: The Exiled Weatherman

What to look for in a HVAC outdoor air temperature sensor

Outdoor air temperature sensors (OAT) should possess the following qualities:

• Robustness - radiation shield mount should ideally be made of corrosion resistant metal for strength and longevity and white in color to prevent overheating of the OAT sensor on sunny days.

• Easy mounting - sensor and radiation shield mount should permit easy pole mounting and wall mounting. The mount should position the OAT sensor at least 8 inches (20 cm) from the mounting surface or wall.

• High-quality radiation shield - quite a bit of money can be saved on temperature sensor cost by spending a little extra on a very good radiation shield. A high-quality radiation shield is especially important on hot sunny days since it determines the air temperature a sensor will measure.

The trade-off between high-cost or a high-quality OAT sensor lies in the understanding that a temperature sensor will measure temperature only of air inside the radiation shield. In low-quality shields, even the most accurate and expensive sensors will measure unrealistically high air temperatures due to influences of wall heat radiating onto the shield or due to heating from direct or reflected sunlight. 

Overall system savings can be maximized by using a helical solar shield as written about in Meteorological Industry News and HVAC & Refrigeration Insider®.