Equipment and instrumentation used at a Kentucky Mesonet environmental monitoring station

The Kentucky Mesonet is a high-density, meso-scale network of automated environmental monitoring stations currently being deployed across the Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of August 1, 2009, there are 30 monitoring stations operating across Kentucky, with an eventual target of near 100 stations. Each station includes sensors that measure air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, incoming solar radiation, and precipitation. Variables are measured every 3 seconds and stored on a datalogger as observations every 5 minutes. Data is then sent to the Kentucky Climate Center every 15 minutes under normal operating conditions, but can be sent every 5 minutes under special conditions. Data is available free of charge in near real time on the Kentucky Mesonet website. Data quality is a function of the quality of observing sites and station instrumentation. This presentation describes the aspects of a Kentucky Mesonet environmental monitoring station. These aspects include: station layout, station power options, and location/mounting of the individual sensors. It also describes the sensors used at a station along with their individual ranges and accuracies.