Development of a modular weather station

Abstract

The TransAfrican Hydro Meteorological Observatory aims to create a dense weather station network in sub-Sahara Africa in order to obtain accurate climate data for a wide range of applications. Existing high-quality weather stations are very expensive and unaffordable for the African government or private parties. Therefore innovative sensors and ICT are developed by TAHMO which can reduce the costs tremendously. The weather stations will be placed at schools for safety reasons and to improve the science education. Within this project the weather station has been developed using the next problem statement: “Develop a modular weather station for integration in sub-Saharan African Junior High School education with the purpose of both acquiring high qualitative data and adding educational value.” The results of the analysis show that there are a lot of different weather stations on the market in different prices, but they do not meet the requirements of being high qualitative and inexpensive. Furthermore, the existing weather stations have no focus on educational purposes. However, there is quite a lot of experience with weather stations at schools which are all connected to a platform, named GLOBE. It is notable that the success of a weather station integrated in the educational program depends on the effort and enthusiasm of the responsible teacher. Additionally, students and teachers who are experienced with it see the weather station as a fun and effective way to teach science. In the ideation phase, several ideas have been created and discussed. The presented ideas are evaluated in the subsequent field research. Different methods are used to discuss the ideas with the target group and to learn more about the feasibility of the project. The general conclusion of the field research was that all the participants were really enthusiastic about the integration of a weather station at their school. They think it is important that it is accessible for all and that it should attract students, especially the ideas with interaction are therefore preferred. However, most of the teachers also mentioned that they would like to place a fence around the station, which would not do justice to the interaction. Based on these findings, the final design of the weather station has been created, which consists of a modular weather station and an interactive fence. The fence consists of three panels, all with a different theme: read, play and test. The weather station itself is designed in such a way that one can easily add, replace or remove a sensor and that the wires are completely tucked away. In order to convince potential investors a prototype has been made. Another purpose of the prototype was to get new insights about the production process. Making the prototype has eventually led to an optimization of various connection parts. TAHMO had already set up a business plan, in which they describe how western schools will be connected with African schools and how the owner of the weather station can earn money by ‘selling’ the data of the weather station. Since this would encourage the owners to repair the station when it is out of order, it is reviewed as a very feasible idea. The report concludes with an evaluation of the product and the project itself. It is expected that the weather station meets most requirements, but further optimization is recommended in order to reduce costs and to verify some assumptions about the use of the weather station.