Mechanical weather station: Architecture, Software and Field Deployments

A mechanical weather station is a specialized device that integrates sensors, data acquisition modules, and communication units. It is designed to automatically collect, process, and transmit meteorological data.

Hardware Components

Multi-parameter Meteorological Sensors

These sensors directly measure environmental variables, including but not limited to:

Atmospheric temperature/humidity sensors

Barometric pressure sensors

Wind speed/wind direction sensors

Precipitation monitoring units (tipping-bucket rain gauges or optical rain gauges)

Radiation sensors (total radiation/ultraviolet/photosynthetically active radiation)

Three-needle probes for soil temperature and humidity

Main Control Unit

A microprocessor runs data quality control algorithms.

An analog-to-digital conversion circuit processes the original signals from sensors.

An embedded storage module enables local data caching.

Communication Interfaces

Supports 4G/5G/NB-IoT wireless transmission.

Provides local RS485/LoRaWAN interfaces.

Software System

The embedded system implements data preprocessing (unit conversion, timestamp marking, and outlier removal).

The communication protocol stack supports IoT protocols such as MQTT/CoAP.

Optional edge computing functions (e.g., temperature trend prediction, rainfall early warning threshold judgment).

Application Modes

Networked Observation

Deploy terminal clusters in specific areas, and realize spatiotemporal analysis of meteorological elements through a geographic information system (GIS) platform.

Vertical Monitoring

Construct a boundary layer meteorological profile by mounting brackets at different heights.

Mobile Deployment

After integrating a power supply system, it can be quickly deployed at emergency sites or temporary scientific research areas.

Technical Features

Operating temperature range: typically -40℃ to +70℃

Protection rating: IP66 or higher

Mean time between failures (MTBF): ＞8000 hours

Configurable data acquisition frequency (1 minute - 1 hour)

Transmission delay: ＜30 seconds (under 4G network conditions)

Such terminals have been widely used in professional fields such as irrigation decision-making for smart agriculture, wind flow modeling for wind farms, urban heat island effect research, and freezing early warning for highways. Their measurement accuracy must comply with the relevant observation standards of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).