The Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network

Abstract

In 1991 the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of the University of Georgia established the Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network. The objective of this network is to collect reliable weather and other environmental variables for agriculture, environmental research and other related applications. Weather stations have been installed on research stations and farms of the Agricultural Experiment Stations, and currently sixteen weather stations are in operation. Each station measures air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, solar radiation, wind speed, wind direction, and soil temperature at S, 10, and 20 cm depths. The sensors are scanned at one·minute intervals and data are permanently stored as either hourly averages or totals. In addition daily summaries are calculated at midnight. A micro-computer at the Georgia Experiment Station in Griffin generates telephone calls to all weather stations at midnight and downloads the data collected during the previous day. Tabular reports are generated daily and data are graphically printed weekly. The weather data are made available upon request for research and other related projects. In addition support has been given to local industries, federal and state agencies, the 1996 Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and others.