The Murdoch University Weather Station, located at the Perth campus, recently received a much needed overhaul.

The Murdoch University Weather Station was initially established in 1977 as a fully manual station. Daily readings were collected at 9am and later stored electronically in excel format for distribution. The station was upgraded and automated in 1998. A website was built by the Murdoch University computer science students as part of their Software engineering project.

Since 1998, apart from the website being rebuilt in 1992 by Dr Tony Blackett, it has been running on the same data logger uploading data via a modem and phone line for analysis.

Recently we have installed a new data logger and system software. Data is transferred via the 3G wireless network and the logger is powered by a Lead/Acid battery kept charged by a solar panel. Several new probes were also installed and the website has been completely re-written.

The weather station was initially established for use by the Atmospheric Science undergraduate students, but has also been used widely for research, teaching and by industry both locally and internationally.

When money ran out to finish this project, a number of research groups in the School of Veterinary and Life Sciences generously came to the rescue to help in its completion. We are also very grateful to Dr Tony Blackett who supplied us with untold hours of IT support over and above what he was paid for.

The site can be accessed via the address: http://wwwmet.murdoch.edu.au

The new Whitby Falls weather station installed in September 2015 is also linked to the South Street site or can be directly located at http://wwwmet.murdoch.edu.au/whitby/

 

Philip Good.

Environmental & Conservation Sciences,

School of Veterinary & Life Sciences.