Published: May 18, 2006 12:28 am            

Gathering Data

A new weather observation station will help farmers, others plan projects

In a matter of days, local farmers — or those who are just curious about atmospheric and soil conditions — will have a new resource at the tip of their fingers.

On Tuesday, officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service and instructors and students from Alabama A&M University set up a weather observation station at the North Alabama Horticulture Research Center on County Road 1466. Within the week, area residents will be able to log on to Alabama Mesonet Network and see data collected each hour.

The Soil Climate Analysis Network, or SCAN, will measure air and soil temperature, soil moisture, relative humidity, solar radiation, rainfall and wind speed and direction.

Arnold Caylor, director of the research center, said the new weather station — the second on the center's campus — will help local farmers with everything from determining if it's a good time to spray for insects, when to water their plants and even when to plant their gardens.

"It will help farmers from the standpoint of knowing what the soil temperature is and aid them in the planting process," Caylor said as a about a dozen people prepared to install the weather station.

The information provided by the station will help farmers determine relative humidity, which can aid them in dealing with disease outbreaks, Caylor said, since diseases can be more active when the humidity is high.

Garry Schaefer, of the NRCS, said the data will help in both agriculture and non-agriculture venues.

For farmers, soil moisture measurements will help farmers determine what crops to plant, based on soil conditions. If the soil is too dry, Schaefer said, a farmer who was going to plant corn, may decide on another crop or let the land fallow. Having that information ahead of time, he said, will help them save time and money on a crop that may not make it.

Scientists can also use the information to predict drought and flood conditions. The moisture content can help determine saturation rates, which will be helpful in looking at flood predictions and magnitude, Schaefer said.

Outside of agriculture, he said companies lay pipe or cables underground can also use the information.

Teferi Tsegaye of Alabama A&M said there are now 23 of the stations in north Alabama and southern Tennessee. Students at A&M use the information for research and hope to provide a clear picture of atmospheric and soil conditions throughout north Alabama.

The system, which also has about 117 stations throughout the Southeast and in Puerto Rico, began as a pilot project in 1991 with 21 stations. It transfers information using meteor burst telemetry.

"One of the unique things about the system is we bounce our radio signals off cosmic dust," Schaefer said.

He said the system is extremely reliable. During Hurricane Katrina, Schaefer said the NRCS weather station 10 miles outside of New Orleans was the only one which continued to transfer data.

Tsegaye said the Web site should be up and running within a week. Cullman's address is not complete, but will include cullman-nahrc in its URL. It can reached through a link at www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/scan/Alabama/alabama.html.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.