Blog
DIT RIDES ON
Location to install the AWS prototype ready for benchmarking, On March 5, WIMEAICT Project visited the JNIA weather station, at the airport for purposes of inspecting the site to be installed with AWS prototype ready for benchmarking. Some of the observations made were:
The AWOS (Automatic Weather Observation System) is not functioning and so they are currently using a manual weather station to collect data after every 30 minutes.
- The manual weather station lacks three parameters which are very important for the aviation industry, these are; visibility, lighting and cloud cover.
- It would be great help to TMA If the WIMEAICT project adds all the three sensors so that they act as a backup for AWOS.
- There is a fibre link from the manual station to the controlling tower; the location of the proposed AWS is almost 20 meters from the manual station.
- The link to the manual station is just an extension to the existing LAN of TCAA office which is at the controlling tower/office. There is a possibility of using this fiber link as an uplink for our station, we could make use of GSM/GPRS as a redundant link.
- Another alternative is the provision of public IP from the network cluster so that we can directly access the device remotely.
- There is a company named SUTRON which has installed a demo rainfall sensor and is trying to sell the same to TMA. The Authorities have confirmed these sensors are needed for agricultural resource centers across the country so they could be of great importance to the country. These could be installed at different locations in Tanzania.
Recommendations
- To look into the logistics of installation of AWS with existing TMA architecture looking into the following items especially the size of the mast (how VISALA AWS will be installed against our GEN2 AWS, positioning of the devices).
- That the atmospheric pressure sensor should be installed 1.5 m above the ground. (iii) Solar radiation sensor to be installed two metres above the ground. It was agreed that we visit Msoga AWS where the VISALA AWS is already installed and functioning, so that we can know the exact infrastructure of VISALA AWS and size of enclosure and how we can integrate our GEN2 AWS in the existing TMA infrastructure.