Northern CA PPSR Projects 1

Citizen Weather Observer Program

• Organization Name

  Automatic Position Reporting System as a WX NETwork
• Project Website

  http://www.wxqa.com/
• Organization Website

  http://www.findu.com/citizenweather/
• Partners

  N / A
• Contact Name

  Russ Chadwick
• Contact Email

  russ@wxqa.com
• Contact Phone

  N / A
• Other Contact Information

  If you are an amateur radio operator sending APRS weather data to findU, you can join APRSWXNET/CWOP with an e-mail to Randall.S.Collander@noaa.gov with your callsign, nearby town, zip code, and elevation in meters (not feet).

• Project Purpose (taken from project materials)

  1) to collect weather data contributed by citizens; 2) to make these data available for weather services and homeland security; and 3) to provide feedback to the data contributors so that they have the tools to check and improve their data quality.

• Participant Activities

  CWOP members send their weather data by internet alone or internet-wireless combination to the findU server and then every five minutes, the data are sent from the findU server to the NOAA MADIS server. The data undergo quality checking and then are distributed to users.

• Data Entry

  • Other
• Other Participant Activities

  N / A
• System Studied

  • Weather
• Geographic Scope

  International
• Region

  All (see 'geographic scope')
• Location

  home - citizen weather station
• Location - Map

  N / A
• Time Commitment

  • Other (see Other Information below)
• Volunteer Qualifications

  -- Have an Internet connection (cable, DSL, dial-up, etc.) ***or***
  have a wireless digital Ham setup (there are 10,000+ registered CWOP members, i.e., "CWxxxx", "DWxxxx", "APxxxx", "ARxxxx", and "ASXXX" stations, on FINDU/ MADIS)
  -- Generally have a well sited weather station
  -- Want to share their data 
  -- Have weather data logging software that can format and send APRS messages (VWS, WeatherDisplay, WeatherLink, WeatherView32, etc.)
  -- Think of watching weather as a serious hobby 
  -- Want to learn about how things fit together

• Volunteer Training

  N / A
• Cost to Participant

  N / A
• How will the findings be used?

  Real time observations from your home weather station can be of great interest to the many people across the country who share your interest in the weather. These data are also of interest to NOAA and your weather data will be included on the NOAA Mesonet Dataset and distributed to user organizations.

• Other Information

  N / A
• Photo

  
• last update:

  10/1/12