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History
In the ends of the Seventies, through the initiative
of the Agricultural Forecast and Warning Service, a sector of agricultural
meteorology in the “Direcção Regional de Agricultura do Algarve (DRAALG) /
Ministério da Agricultura, do Desenvolvimento Rural e das Pescas (MADRP)” was
created, which made use of conventional meteorological stations. With the
technological evolution, on this type of equipment, it was possible to find in
the market new alternatives, that they had come to give effective reply to an
ample set of necessities. These sophisticated equipment allowed to give more
data, with more precision and easy access, they also had a better adaptation in
terms of application of forecast models. Conscientious of the necessity to
modify the existing situation, the “DRAALG”, through the area of the Plant
Protection, initiated the process of reconversion of the conventional stations
for the automatic ones.
The Net
Currently this net is constituted
for 12 stations, having as main objective the attainment of
meteorological data that can serve of base to the technical
questions, related with agriculture, the models of forecast of
occurrence of pests and diseases of the cultures are combined in
this scope, calculation of irrigation necessities,
fenological
evolution, etc. In this phase the gotten data is already
available, so that the different interested ones can use it
(Farmers, Associations, Technician, Universities, etc..).
The AWS
Each station is mainly equipped with
a logger, the circuits of power (solar panel), protection and
communication (modem), and several sensors: temperature and
relative humidity of the air, speed and wind direction, solar
radiation, precipitation, underground temperature, leaf humidity
and the station also as the algorithm that allows the
calculation of the potential evapotranspiration. Daily, the
collected data is automatically transferred via GSM from all the
net to the central station (PC), located in the headquarters of
the DRAPALG in Faro.
Protocols
As example of contribution with
other entities, we can mention the existence of a protocol of
contribution between DRAPALG and “Centro Operativo e de
Tecnologia de Regadio (COTR)”, for emission of acknowledgments
of irrigation (calculated values of evapotranspiration in some
cultures) on a web page, and in development, the creation of a
national database, in the headquarters of the “Direcção Geral de
Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural (DGADR), ex "Direcção Geral
de Protecção das Culturas" (DGPC) / Serviço Nacional Avisos
Agrícolas (SNAA)”.
Future
Being considered as a Service of
public utility that is in a phase of consolidation of the
structures, equipment and formation of staff, in a future
perspective, we want to continue the consolidation /uniformization
and innovation of this net in technical terms, equipment, human
specialization and procedures. The installation of more stations
of this nature, in strategical places, in order to cover of, in
the best possible form the Region of the Algarve in
agrometeorological terms, is also a possible measure to be
taken.
In
the "4th ICEAWS - International Conference on Experiences with
Automatic Weather Station", that took place in Lisbon/Portugal
(24-26 May 2006), was presented the paper
"The
Net of Automatic Meteorological Stations of the “Direcção
Regional de Agricultura do Algarve (DRAALG)”,
it was intended in this presentation to effect a description and
characterization of the net, becoming more clear its
understanding on the part of the interested ones, in this
thematic.
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