Techies aim for the sky with sim-based weather station

Weather forecast is big business across the world. However, in some places, especially in the developing countries, including Kenya, challenges galore, leading to sometimes controversial predictions.

When the weatherman gets it wrong, preparedness and planning suffer. Getting it right is tied to, among other things, technological advancement.

One such technology is Automatic Weather Station (AWS), a digital equipment produced by Broadcast Solutions International Company. It can measure four elements of weather: humidity, temperature, wind speed and its direction all at once.

According to the owners, the equipment targets potential investors in wind and solar energy production, the new craze in the world, what with the threats of global warming.

Investors eyeing business in wind energy require history of wind patterns from the Meteorological Department, said Thomas Ekajja, the company’s general manager.

This kind of information will now be easily available, he said, adding that the equipment is more accurate than the manual recording of weather data that is most times tedious.

“For aspects like wind speed and direction, it takes readings every 10 seconds and after 60 seconds it gets the average. It does that for 15 minutes before it remits information to the meteorologists for assessment,” Mr Ekajja told Business Daily at the Meteorological Society International conference in Kisumu last week.

Data from each instrument is fed through a cable into the main board, “which is the brain of the system”. It monitors parameters and records them using a sim card on any network and relays the data to a server.

To access the data sent by the sim card requires a computer fitted with a specialised software called Orison.

Mr Ekajja said it uses infrared light like a remote control to collect data.

As the anemometer rotates, a disk blocks the infrared light and counts the rotations from the number of light beams let through.

“If it’s 20 rotations, the number is multiplied by 0.6 factor to get the speed of wind in metres per second,” said Mr Ekajja. Humidity, he said, is taken in voltage such that one volt translates to 100 per cent humidity.

Tedious exercise

“Before, there used to be a thermometer, rain gauge and barometer which somebody needed to come with a book and pen to record their readings every 60 minutes for 24 hours.

“Since it was tedious, some people, for example, could end up cheating because they were too lazy to go and check the results at 3am, for instance,” said Mr Ekajja.

The moment the wrong data is presented and used by a meteorologist, people will end up getting wrong predictions, he said, adding that AWS is one of the “advanced systems” of checking weather.

Using it, meteorologists can have normal working hours, report to work at 8am, download overnight data and process it for forecasts.

The machine uses solar power during the day and a built-in battery during the night. The battery runs for 24 hours, making it suitable for places without mains electricity.

The battery, which is solar-charged, can run the equipment for two to three days even if sunlight is limited.

Investments in solar and wind energy are increasing and in Kenya the Energy Regulatory Commission requires that homes and business buildings have in place solar heaters.

Mr Ekajja said Kenya’s metereorological department has one AWS.

The company is targeting the counties that “should be in a position to give you timely information about their weather.”

Mr Nicholas Maingi, an assistant director at Met confirmed the plans to install the improved weather equipment in counties.

More accurate

Accuracy in weather forecast, he said, had improved greatly due to advanced technology and asked Kenyans not to doubt the information the department releases, for example on the El-Niño phenomenon.

“Accuracy of weather prediction depends on factors such as quality of equipment and expertise which the government has improved since the 1997 El-Niño. Once these are installed in every county, predictions will be more accurate,” he noted.

Mr Ekajja said weather stations are expensive investments.

According to the World Meteorological Organisation, one must have a weather station in a 15-kilometre radius for effective forecast.

“It means several hundred weather stations are needed to cover inhabited places whereas in Kenya, there are only 70 that cover all the populated areas,” he said.

Mr Ekajja said relying on manual techniques which are subject to delays and human error also explain poor predictions.

“Someone in flood-prone Narok may, for instance, decide to wait for rain to subside before getting readings from a traditional rain gauge without knowing that when Nairobi gets early information, it can send warning of impending calamities at the right time,” he said.

“Instead of using specialised software on a computer to access date from the machine, we want to make it easier for anyone to use a given username and password to log in directly and get information from a cyber café,” said Mr Ekajja.