DEVELOPMENT OF REAL-TIME, SOLAR POWERE D MICROCONTROLLER-BASED WEATHER STATION FOR THE ACQUISITION OF ATMOSPHERIC PARA METERS

Amount: ₦8,000.00 |

Format: Ms Word |

1-5 chapters |




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)

CHARPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

Weather  tracking  is  of great  importance  in  our  society  today,  in  the  past  weather monitoring  was only useful  for agricultural  purpose. But with recent advancement  in technology, weather information is of great importance in other field of life (Jahedul et al.,  2018).

Weather  monitoring  checks  the  behaviour  of some  atmospheric  parameters  such  as temperature,  relative humidity,  solar radiation,  wind speed,  wind direction,  due point, rain  fall  and cloudiness  (Ukhureboret al.,  2017).  Global  warming  may  also  lead to weakened and failed states, creating yet more poverty, forced migrations  and resource scarcity-conditions that foster extremism and terrorism (smartclimatchoice 2009).

The importance  of weather tracking cannot be over emphasised,  this is due to it great importance in agriculture, communications, air transportation, industries, meteorologist and to atmospheric physicist (Anthony et al., 2017).In agriculture, weather is one factor which determines how much success that can be recorded, because crop yield depend on weather  in  providing  energy  and  water  for  it  sustenance  (Abubakar  and  Sulaiman, 2018).  Research has proved that climate change will have great effect  on agricultural yield and human activities in the next century(Walthall  et al., 2018).Hence there is need to have an effective  means  of monitoring  atmospheric  parameter  at all times.  Such a weather station should have an independent power source such as solar energy,  for all time   weather   monitoring.   A  microcontroller   weather   station   reads   and  records atmospheric  parameters  using  sensors  without  any external  intervention.  The recorded atmospheric parameters  can be processed  as wired information, in which case, it can be downloaded  in a computer  or through  a server as in wireless  communication  (U ghanze et al.,  2019).

1.2      Statement of the Research Problem

The importance of weather station cannot be over emphasised.  Hitherto,  the source of atmospheric   information   is  majorly   from   conventional   weather   stations,   though available  in limited  numbers,  some  difficulties  are  associated  with  their  operations. Some of the challenges associated in them are that:

Real time assessment of atmospheric parameters  from conventional weather station for out-of-site  users  is  not  achievable,   this  is  because  they  are  not  internet  driven. Conventional   weather  station  is  prone  to  human  error  because  it  requires  human presence due to its manual operation.  Cost of acquiring conventional weather station is often on the high side. Conventional weather stations are scares to see around due to its size.  Malfunctioning  of components  in existing conventional  weather  station due to it obsolete nature,  leaves one with the option of combining readings from more than one weather station to get reasonable weather parameters  of interest. Conventional  weather stations  are not portable  and as such,  cannot be moved to different  locations  for the purpose  of gathering  atmospheric  parameters.  To  address  these  challenges,  a  solar powered  microcontroller  weather  station  was  conceived.  It  utilise  electronic  sensors which will read and record atmospheric  parameters,  display such data on an LCD for on-site  users  and  also  transmit  to  an  online  server  which  will  display  real  time atmospheric  data  to off-sites  users.  Such weather  station  will be portable  and solar powered  for  round  the  clock  acquisition   of weather  information  of interest  at  any location.

1.3      Aim and Objectives of the Study

The   aim   of  this   work   is   to   design   and   construct   a   portable   solar-powered microcontroller-based weather station that will transmit real time atmospheric parameter to an online server.

This aim will be achieved through the following objectives, which are to:

1.    design an electronic circuit using a microcontroller  as it central processing unit which will retrieve and record atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind direction and wind speed from respective electronic sensors and display the values for on-site users.

11.     interface a Wi-Fi module into the design to serve as a transmission link between acquired atmospheric data and a webpage for use for-off-site users.

iii. utilize  miniature,  low-cost  and  locally  available  components  to  construct  the design, using solar energy as its source of power supply.

1v.  evaluate  theperformance  of the constructed  weather  station  if it meets  design objectives.

1.4      Significance/Justification of the study

The study has the following significance:

1.    the  microcontroller-based  weather  station  is  of great  benefit  to  atmospheric physicists  and meteorologist  under  taking research  studies,  since the weather station provides the needed weather data for atmospheric studies.

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11.      weather information that the microcontroller-based weather station provides is of great  benefit  to  the  agricultural  sector,  aviation  sector,  military  operation,  to mention just a few for planning and safety.

iii.  the  wireless  and  internet  driven  nature  of the  microcontroller-based  weather station  makes  it possible  for measured  atmospheric  parameter  to  be  available online to a wider user.

1v.  the  use  of solar  energy  as  a  source  of power  supply  for  the  weather  station accounts  for the  resourceful  nature  of the  study  in  that  it utilise  the  abundant solar energy available in the study area

1.5      Scope and Limitation of the Study

This work  develops  a solar powered  microcontroller-based  weather  station  that  will measure  atmospheric  temperature, pressure, relative  humidity,  wind  speed and  wind direction with the aid of electronic sensors at sixty seconds interval. The weather station is solar powered in order to harness the abundant  solar energy of study area.  Also the atmospheric data measured will be displayed on a web site for easy accessibility by out- of-site users.

The limitation  of the  study is that, the measured  parameters  are limited to those  of atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and wind direction  only.  The  weather  station  can be upgraded  in  future  to  incorporate  more atmospheric parameters

1.6      Justification of the Study

International  professional  bodies  such as The International  Oceanic  and Atmospheric

Administration,   International   Center   for   Environmental    Information   and   World

Metrological  Organisation  advocates  for  local  collection  of data.  This  requires  the

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deployment  of weather  stations  to locations.  This work  makes  available  low  cost and portable weather station that could be easily installed in various locations. Atmospheric  data acquisition  is crucial to the study of atmospheric  physics,  metrology and aviation.  The weather station to be designed and constructed  in this work is capable of real time digital data acquisition  on-spot  and online  for purposes  of record keeping and further analysis by professionals  and researchers.



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DEVELOPMENT OF REAL-TIME, SOLAR POWERE D MICROCONTROLLER-BASED WEATHER STATION FOR THE ACQUISITION OF ATMOSPHERIC PARA METERS

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