WS-GP2 Advanced Automatic Weather Station System

The advanced WS-GP2 Automatic Weather Station is based on the powerful GP2 Data Logger. It is an ideal solution for research and environmental monitoring applications at remote and exposed sites. The WS-GP2 provides a highly rugged and flexible system; users can select the optimal combination of sensors, loggers, power, and communications. 

Sensors

The standard WS-GP2 includes sensors to measure rain, solar radiation, soil temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, and air temperature.

Flexibility

The GP2 Data Logger has the power and flexibility to handle almost any environmental sensor, which means the WS-GP2 Weather Station can be as simple or as complex as your application requires. Even after installation, it’s easy to adapt the system to your specific needs. Optional sensors include barometric pressure, soil moisture, soil EC, UV, PAR, albedo, net radiation, total and diffuse radiation, and evaporation.

Data handling

Data can be easily collected by laptop via USB, or remotely using the cellular modem options. DeltaLINK Software makes it easy to set up recording intervals and to view and download stored data. Data presentation options include wind rose, gusts, and average (including direction and vector average).

SDI-12 enabled

The GP2 Data Logger supports SDI-12 inputs. GP2s supplied before March 2016 can be easily updated via a software download. The product offers a huge additional input capacity for SDI-12 sensors, while keeping analog and digital channels fully available, enabling highly flexible logger and sensor networks.

Advanced features for meteorology

For researchers interested in evapotranspiration, degree days, disease prediction, wind chill factor, dew point, PID control, etc., the GP2’s advanced features will open exciting possibilities.

Calculation of full ASCE/FAO 56 Penman-Monteith evapotranspiration equation

The WS-GP2 Weather Station and DeltaLINK Software (versions 3.7 and later) enable the full ASCE/FAO-56 Penman-Monteith equation for calculating reference evapotranspiration (ETo). ETo is calculated by the WS-GP2 Weather Station using the available measurements of relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and air temperature. This ET implementation includes the ability to vary crop albedo/LAI, canopy resistances, crop height, and sensor heights. The functionality can be easily accessed by users as a selectable recording option within DeltaLINK. Calculated ET can be recorded as hourly and daily values and may be used in further bespoke calculations or to guide field irrigation decisions.

Customisation

The GP2’s analogue inputs can be fully customised. Each channel can have its own input type and recording parameters. DeltaLINK software gives the user control over reading frequency, thresholds, and units and provides recording options for average, min, and max, plus specialised wind options, including wind roses, gusts, and wind averaging. Users can add their own custom sensor types to the sensor library, exploiting the GP2’s detailed configuration options. The GP2 provides 4 input ranges down to microvolt resolution with adaptive auto-ranging, excellent analogue accuracy, and configurable sensor excitation, enabling it to support nearly all analogue sensors. Calculations based on the measurements from several input channels can be recorded and displayed as additional virtual channels (calculated measurements).

Script Editor

This powerful software feature creates step-by-step operations to control simple or complex processes or recording requirements. The degree of sophistication it offers means the potential applications are numerous and varied. The editor interface is easy to use, and no programming language is involved. This software creates sequences of operations to implement models, offering advanced control and recording capabilities. The easy user interface eliminates the need for typing commands or programming languages, allowing you to implement simple or complex conditions and algebraic expressions, and record result values.

Simulator

This unique software feature allows logging programs to be tested before real-world activation. For applications involving weather data, irrigation, or soil moisture recording, the environmental variables can be changed to test how the program responds. Years of logging time can be simulated in just a few minutes. This functionality empowers you to implement both simple and complex conditions, craft algebraic expressions, and record the resulting values. It further extends this control by allowing you to create and manipulate variables, making it ideal for tasks like modeling disease-risk factors.