Comparing observed meteorological data from two different types of automatic weather stations
Petro Burger
11048990
HONOURS REASEARCH PROJECT – WKD 763
2016
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY, GEOINFORMATICS AND METEOROLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA
ABSTRACT
Observed meteorological data collected by two different types of automatic weather stations (AWS) were statistically analysed in order to verify if there were a difference in the measurements due to the different sensor types. The hypothesis is that the different types of AWS’s will not be statistically different. Data from January 2014 to February 2016 for six places in South Africa were analysed. Significant differences were observed for rainfall totals, temperatures and wind speeds by using the Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test.
1. Introduction
The objective of this study was to compare observed rainfall amounts, maximum air temperature, minimum air temperature and maximum wind speeds at daily periods from two different types of automatic weather stations. An automatic weather station (AWS) is defined by the WMO (1992a) as a meteorological station where observations are made and from which the data is transmitted automatically. The AWS was designed to accurately measure and record standard meteorological variables. The design of AWS’s may vary from measurement rates, methods on how the data is retrieved or the intervals of when the data is reported (Tanner, 1990).
All functional AWS’s must consist of certain specific features. These
Quito is the capital city from Ecuador where is considering a high elevation area with approximately 2800 meters above sea level in its elevation. Also, the city is located in the center of Andean Region and it is influenced by the equatorial line with latitudes nearest to 0 grades and being in a Tropical Region without seasons (Figure 1). Moreover, Quito doesn’t present stations, only the city shows two times considered like a dry and a wet season. The mean temperature during the year has a mean in minimum about 9.0°C and a maximum 25.4 °C20, also presented a high precipitation near to 1126 mm on 2015 that let to have a high density cloud every year.
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