Industry & Economy
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Climate & Weather
ISRO tech pact to make auto weather stations
Our Bureau
Bangalore
,
March 18
ISRO's commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, and Astra Microwave Products Ltd of Hyderabad today signed a technology transfer agreement for the indigenous commercial production and supply of automatic weather stations developed by ISRO.
Astra Microwave will make commercial production of AWSs at its facility and deploy them in the country based on the requirement of user agencies such as the Met department, ocean development agency and States' agri info departments, as specified by Antrix, according to ISRO.
They will also gradually substitute IMD's imported devices. Astra is expected to produce 20-30 devices a month depending on the demand.
The AWS is a low-cost, compact, modular, rugged device used to continuously record weather data such as temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, rainfall, relative humidity and solar radiation.
It can operate unattended for at least six years with minimum power from battery and solar panel for long periods in field conditions and remote areas with scarce power supply and communication.
Data from a large number of AWSs set up across the country can be collected through the data relay transponder on board ISRO's Insat satellites.
The weather information collected through AWS can also be given out through the village resources centres that ISRO is setting up jointly with NGOs and other agencies.
ISRO's various centres developed the AWS jointly with the Indian industry and the prototype has been successfully demonstrated. Its features include easy programming of sensors, front panel display, archival of a year's data and communication options via satellite, telephone, modem or cell phone.
A GPS can be integrated with the AWS for accurate time for transmission.
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