NSTDA and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DOAE) agreed to collaboration on a project to integrate data from automatic weather stations to enhance agricultural land use efficiency. The MOU signing ceremony was held on 29 May 2019, with Dr. Narong Sirilertworakul, NSTDA President and Mr. Sumran Sarabun, DOAE Director – General.
The project, to be implemented by NECTEC-NSTDA, will make use of weather data collected from automatic weather stations to benefit farmers and share the data with other state agencies. The data includes temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, precipitation and lighting.
Developed by NECTEC research team, an automatic weather station is equipped with sensors to measure atmospheric conditions which are used for weather forecasts and studying the weather and climate. Measurements are made and reported real-time. The station is operated on solar power and battery, thus enables measurements from remote areas. The automatic weather station consists of three major components:
1. Control center: record measurements – temperature, relative humidity, light intensity and precipitation -- from sensors and transmit them to a server through GPRS. It is operated on solar power during the day, and battery at night.
2. Battery: 12V 9.6AH sealed lead-acid (SLA) battery with 2-year life span
3. Sensors: consist of sensors to measure temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, precipitation and light intensity.
A total of 122 automatic weather stations has already been installed nationwide, mainly at provincial agricultural extension offices, local administrative offices, schools, local health promotion hospitals and agricultural learning centers. Data from automatic weather stations are processed and reported on http://agritronics.nstda.or.th.
