Arooj Zulfiqar

The upcoming weather cannot be changed, but its prior knowledge helps reduce losses in case of harsh climatic conditions. The NUST (National University of Sciences and Technology) School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Islamabad, has developed a weather station device to measure weather-related parameters.

Principal Investigator of NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Dr Shahzad Younis, who developed the IoT-based weather station, said while talking to WealthPK that it is an ideal weather monitoring system for real-time, local weather information at flexible time resolutions ranging from a fraction of a second to hours or days. “It is located at NUST farm and records a range of values from temperature and humidity to carbon dioxide levels and even windspeed,” he elaborated.

A number of natural calamities occur every year around the world that have the potential to disrupt large swathes of crops, preventing them from growing and sustaining themselves. The global population is growing, and food prices are rising at an alarming rate, posing a threat to people’s health and well-being. Dr Shahzad said technological interventions are crucial in improving farm-level productivity to meet the increasing demands.

“There is no doubt that agriculture has been a subject of nature's whims for centuries, more specifically, to the weather. However, over the past few decades, various technologies have been implemented to ensure that farmers have better information on the weather in advance,” he said. “This weather station device will give accurate data to the farming community.

As part of its capabilities, the weather station device is capable of measuring accurate results and sends all of its sensor data to a central server for analysis and display. For improved efficiency and data-sending intervals, the device can be controlled remotely from the cloud. As low as a 10-second time interval can be used for the real-time data measurement,” he elaborated. Dr Shahzad said data includes rain level, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, air quality (TVOC+CO2 levels), light intensity, air temperature and humidity.

By including redundancy in the key sensors of the system, the solution also improves the reliability of the system. Sensor suite’s rugged, weather-proof housing gives years of reliable data. Additionally, it is a solar-powered device with a battery backup as well as a sleep mode that allows the battery to last for a longer period of time. “It is hoped that the solution will provide data to farmers, gardeners, educators, community leaders, outdoor recreation enthusiasts, researchers, businesses, and weather enthusiasts,” he said.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk