Record Weather Data With Arduino and Solar Power : Use Sensors to Record and Analyze Meteorological Data

Make a stand-alone weather data recorder to collect air pressure, air temperature, and humidity data using only an Arduino, SD card, LCD display, and solar power. Start with this base data and build your project from there. Chunyan has years of experience as a researcher in meteorology and oceanography. The projects in this book are based on actual deployable weather data recorders used for collegiate and professional applications. These weather recorders were deployed over coastal waters and lands, including the Arctic. And you can deploy your own finished model in your backyard, schoolyard, rooftop, or even in the field to collect data at programmed intervals.

Don’t worry about powering all that tech. You’ll learn about solar controllers, solar panels, and step-down DC transformers. Find out what happens when you combine a simple Arduino with sensors, one at a time, toward a final model capable of multiple measurements and long-term use without recharging or requiring external power. With a GPS module integrated into the system, you can have accurate time and position information to pair with your data.

Everything you need to know about integrating components and housing them in an enclosure is covered. Photos of actual working units are provided, showing you exactly what your data collection station can look like. By accessing the supplemental materials on the book's GitHub pages, you’ll even go a step beyond to learn more meteorological information, how to use the collected data, and how to analyze it. Build a station capable of real meteorological research and then expand to add more sensors and capabilities for your own projects and experiments!

​Chunyan Li is a professor teaching in oceanography and meteorology at Louisiana State University. He has made dozens of weather recorder units powered by battery or solar panels for research projects and student projects. He has published more than 120 scientific research papers, coauthored a book titled Meteorology for Coastal Scientists and authored another book titled Time Series Analysis for Oceanography. He is also the director of an offshore meteorology oceanography observation system for weather, wave, tide, currents, and storm surges. His research includes theories of coastal and estuarine dynamics under the influence of tide, river, and weather, as well as impacts of climate change to the Arctic coastal ocean.