THE COUNTRY will now have up-to-date weather data following the completion of the second phase of installation of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) in various sites in the country.
Three AWS were recently installed in Fera, Santa Anna and Afio and three Automatic Rain Gauges (ARG) in Kia, Isabel Province, Mbiti in South West Guadalcanal and Aligegeo in Malaita Province.The remaining two Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and seven Automatic Rain Gauges (ARGs) will be installed later this year by Solomon Islands Meteorological Services (SIMS).The installation was carried out by a team of officers from the SIMS, New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and UNDP.
According to the Director of Meteorology, David Hiriasia, the AWS are strategically positioned throughout the country, with four already installed at Santa Ana in Makira, Afio in Malaita, Avuavu in Guadalcanal and Fera in Isabel.The other two AWS are yet to be installed in Mono Island in the Western Province, and the other at Tikopia in the eastern part of the country.
According to a statement released by the Government, AWS are equipment that measures weather parameters which include rainfall, wind speed, atmospheric pressure, air temperature, soil temperature, and soil moisture.It then transmits the data via satellite to the database.Four of the AWS were purchased by UNDP-SWoCK project, while the other two were purchased by NDMO and were to be installed by SIMS and NIWA through SWoCK support.Previously, the country relied on manned stations which are located mainly in the capital and provincial centres.
According to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Disaster Management, Dr Melchior Mataki, “the recent installation of AWS will expand our automatic weather observation throughout the country”.He said the SWoCK project has greatly assisted SIMS in expanding the country’s observation network.Apart from installation of AWS, the SWoCK project also provided 12 Automatic Rain Gauges (ARGs) of which five have already been installed in various locations in the country.ARGs are equipment which only measures rainfall and sends data automatically via satellite to a base station.Dr Melchior further stressed that ‘with such network up and running, it has given them the capability in terms of not only forecasting, but now casting as well since the data is transmitted in almost real time’.
“This means we would know almost instantly what’s the weather like in the location where we have these AWS and ARGs.
“This is really a step up from what we used to have.”