DEVELOPMENT OF REAL-TIME, SOLAR POWERED MICROCONTROLLER-BASED WEATHER STATION FOR THE ACQUISITION OF ATMOSPHERIC PARAMETERS

Abstract

Atmospheric researchers, meteorologists, and farmers continue to face difficulties in assessing real-time weather data. This project created a solar-powered Arduino microcontroller-based weather station that uses meteorological sensors to measure atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction. The temperature, relative humidity, pressure, wind direction, and wind speed monitoring elements are all part of the weather station. The power supply, electronic control, display, and data transfer sectors are among the others. The output of the sensors is processed by an Arduino Atmega 2560 microcontroller, which displays it on an LCD for on-site users and also transmits it to the Wi-Fi module, which uploads the data online so that out-of-site users can access the measured weather information. For the storing and analysis of measured meteorological parameters, the weather station uses Thinkspeak Technology's Internet of Things (IoT) initiative. For successful real-time atmospheric data logging, the results of the performance evaluation demonstrated appropriate synchronization between electronic sensors, microcontroller, and the internet. Utilisation of low-cost sensors and locally available components made it possible to spend as little as N216, 400 (Two Hundred and Sixteen Thousand Four Hundred Naira) to develop to this weather station compared to an imported one which is about $8,000 (Eight Thousand Dollar)