Professional Meteorology
WMO accurately specifies the requirements sensors have to meet in order to be considered professional met equipment. These requirements go far beyond conventional applications like agriculture. Beyond the pure sensor specs WMO also specifies sampling and storage intervals, the rules for averaging, and a number of methods how to properly assess the quality and plausibility of data in order to detect erroneous readings as quickly as possible.
An automatic weather station suitable for a professional user is almost on an impossible mission:
it must deliver accurate data from sensors that meet at least the WMO’s requirements, that are stable and will not drift or deteriorate over time, that require ideally very little maintenance, that use very little power since such stations are frequently installed in rather remote locations with no power outlets anywhere near, for a long time, and that also meet the customers budgetary limitations.
It must also feature a data logger that has a large number of I/O channels, interfaces for a wide variety of sensor outputs, that can power each sensor, collect and process the sensors data according to WMO requirements, but also store that data and ideally transmit it back to base in almost real time, with no data gaps at all – day in, day out, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Not an easy task – but ADCON has the answer!
ADCON’s top of the line of professional data loggers, the A753 addWAVE, was designed with this task in mind. It incorporates the measuring methods as stipulated by WMO, in particular for proper wind gust monitoring, if features a huge number of I/O channels (up to 60), that can individually be programmed and sampled, it features mV and V inputs, TTL status inputs and outputs, standard and high speed pulse counters, lots of SDI-12 channels and even a Modbus option.
The A753 addWAVE powers all sensors connected to it through its integrated battery and is still efficient enough to work of an extremely compact solar panel.
For communication purposed the A753 addWAVE can be ordered either with a UHF, a GPRS or a UMTS modem built-in. For all remote areas with no cell phone coverage ADCON’s UHF technology enables the customer to build his own network, covering huge areas, with data hopping from station to the next all the way back to base. And if bad comes to worse ADCON can even provide Satellite stations from our mother company, OTT Hydromet.
ADCON supplies a series of professional sensors for this application for just about any environmental parameter that needs to be monitored. To meet our quality expectations, our low-power requirements and last not least our price points, ADCON has commissioned a number of leading sensor companies to develop adequate sensors for our A753 addWAVE logger – all plug and play, ready to go, with integrated signal amplifiers, cables with IP-67 connectors and all the mounting accessories required.
Solar radiation: we offer the full range of Hukseflux products and selected sensors from the Kipp & Zonen range.
Temperature and relative humidity: choose between our own TR1 & TR2 sensors and a range of Vaisala products
Precipitation: select the model you wish amongst 2 different versions of ADCON's RG1 model, 2 different versions of our professional rain gauge, built for us by one of Germany's top manufacturers in this industry, and 2 different versions of the high-end Pluvio² model, the L and the S, made by our mother company OTT Hydromet in Germany. As the latest addition to this line of sensors we can also offer an innovative precipitation radar sensor, built by our sister company Lufft in Germany. (Just keep in mind that radar will require a separate power supply.)
Wind speed and direction: we provide a range of sensors, all made in Germany, for all applications, from a lower cost set for agriculture to a high-end set for professional meteorological installations. On top of this we also provide you with high-end ultra-sonic sensors such as the WS200 from Lufft. Most of these sensors are also available in heated versions.
Soil Temperature, Barometric Pressure, Soil Moisture, UV Radiation, Albedometers, Net Radiation Sensors, PAR Sensors, Level Sensors for Class A evaporation pans, Ground Water Level sensors, Surface Water Radar sensors, and on and on and on – you name the parameter, we provide the sensor!
addVANTAGE Pro Software
To store, process and visualize all this data ADCON provides addVANTAGE Pro, a sophisticated software package with an integrated SQL database, that can
- collect data from thousands of stations and tens of thousands of sensors,
- display this data graphically and in tabular form,
- give access through the internet through any web browser,
- assess the quality of the data, not only using WMO methods, but also a number of algorithms developed by ADCON to detect error patterns,
- compare data between sites,
- process data with a vast number of software extensions, such as statistics of all kinds,
- issue alerts at freely defined conditions,
- export that data in a variety of formats,
- and much, much more.
Ask your ADCON distribution partner or get in touch with us!
Various meteorological sensors
Sensors you need to run plant protection models
Agricultural Risk Management
A short outline of benefits of Adcon systems regarding modern Agricultural Risk Management.