Abstract
Abstract. A weather station built using 3D-printed parts and low-cost sensors, based on plans and guidance provided by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research 3D-Printed Automatic Weather Station Initiative, was deployed alongside an Oklahoma Mesonet station to compare its performance against standard commercial sensors and determine the longevity and durability of the system. Temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, solar radiation, and precipitation measurements were collected over an 8-month field deployment in Norman, Oklahoma. Measurements were comparable to the commercial sensors except for wind direction, which proved to be problematic. Longevity and durability of the system varied, as some sensors and 3D-printed components failed during the deployment. Overall, results show that these low-cost sensors are comparable to the more expensive commercial counterparts and could serve as viable alternatives for researchers and educators with limited resources for short-term deployments. Long-term deployments are feasible with proper maintenance and regular replacement of sensors and 3D-printed components.
Highlights
Low-cost sensors, coupled with three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies, can provide researchers and educators with the ability to create tools and instrumentation at a fraction of the cost of commercial counterparts
Temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, and UV data collected from the 3Dprinted station were averaged to 5 min in order to compare with the Mesonet data downloaded from Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility (ARM, 2019)
The standard error of the mean (SEM), root mean square error (RMSE), average difference, and minimum and maximum values of the 3D-printed station and Mesonet are listed at the lower right
Summary
Low-cost sensors, coupled with three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies, can provide researchers and educators with the ability to create tools and instrumentation at a fraction of the cost of commercial counterparts. Most efforts related to weather station development have focused on relatively short time periods for evaluation of the sensors and 3D-printed components; the 3D-PAWS initiative has tested and deployed their systems in a long-term operational manner, with approximately 19 stations deployed worldwide (Kucera and Steinson, 2017). Evaluation of these low-cost systems against commercialgrade instrumentation is important in proving these technologies and enabling adoption on a wider scale. Students were able to gain valuable hands-on experience with proposal writing, project plan development, 3D printing, instrument engineering and development, and field campaign operations
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