Kentucky Mesonet Station Installed At WKU Farm

April 04, 2007

Bowling Green, Ky. - The Kentucky Mesonet is one step closer to its goal of providing real-time weather and climate data through a statewide network.

Mesonet technicians Dana Grabowski and Stephen Struebig have installed a data-collection station at the Western Kentucky University farm. The station will serve as a test site to ensure that the equipment is working properly to provide research quality data and later will be used to perform field-based testing and calibration on environmental sensors.

“Our Mesonet technicians have done an outstanding job to install the equipment and develop the procedures for working with the data,” said State Climatologist Stuart Foster, director of the Kentucky Climate Center at WKU.
The statewide automated environmental monitoring network of approximately 100 stations will collect real-time weather and climate observations and will support a variety of products to serve needs across Kentucky. The project was funded by a $1.5 million federal earmark secured by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell for the Kentucky Climate Center, part of WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program in the Ogden College of Science and Engineering.

Both Grabowski and Struebig are excited to help launch the Mesonet.

“Kentucky doesn’t have a widespread climate data system in place, which is what we hope to accomplish,” Struebig said. “This project will help communities and will provide a good set of data for the National Weather Service, emergency planning agencies and others affected by severe weather.”

Grabowski noted that the Mesonet also will provide valuable climate and weather information to farmers, teachers and students. “It’s really a great opportunity to get data out there for the public and for agricultural purposes,” she said.

Instruments will measure precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction, soil moisture and soil temperature. Data will be packaged into observations every five minutes and transmitted to the Kentucky Climate Center every 15 minutes, 24 hours per day, throughout the year.

Data from the Mesonet will have wide-ranging applications in agriculture, education, emergency management, engineering and construction, water supply management, weather forecasting, and other areas.
Dr. Foster and Rezaul Mahmood of the Kentucky Climate Center have been traveling the Commonwealth in recent months to talk about the Mesonet project and to seek input on possible sites for data-collection stations.

Work is expected to begin this month on stations in Ohio, Rowan and Logan counties, Dr. Foster said. Negotiations regarding proposed sites are underway in several other counties throughout the state, and additional sites will be selected soon.

“We are very pleased with the level interest in the Mesonet across the state,” Dr. Foster said.
For more on the Kentucky Mesonet, visit http://kyclim.wku.edu/kymesonet/.
               
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Stuart Foster at (270) 745-5983.