The state-owned enterprise has partnered with Bloomsky, a Californian start-up tech company that used Kickstarter crowd funding to develop a weather station system that was affordable and capable of sharing its data through a user-friendly smartphone app.
As the Internet of Things became a growing network of onfarm devices Swainson said the Bloomsky weather station was a first for the simplicity and accessibility it brought to farm or home-based weather surveillance.
“There are plenty of weather station systems out on the market,” Swainson said.
“However, they all require no small degree of programming, computer ability and software to get them presenting their data in a readable manner.
“The Bloomsky system sets up easily without software and using the app makes it possible to observe weather at any other station in place.”
The solar-powered wi-fi internet-connected system was designed to measure humidity, temperature, barometric pressure and with an addition also recorded rainfall and wind speed.
Developed by a company with industrial designers at its core, it offered a compact set-up easily installed on a farm fencepost or mounted to a stainless steel tripod. A built-in camera is angled skyward to record cloud formations, provided in time lapse record via the smartphone app.
But for MetService meteorologists and managers Bloomsky’s value lay in the data multiple Bloomsky units would be capable of collecting across the country.
They would add significant crowd-sourced weather observations to the MetService’s own array of high-tech, set-piece weather radar systems deployed around NZ.
MetService was a partner in the Agrigate dairy portal with LIC and Fonterra.
Swainson said that outlet would play a big part in the future as MetService developed hyper-local district forecasting based on weather data fed in by the Bloomsky systems.
He hoped the ticket price of $600 for the full kit would prove a strong lure to get more farmers on board with a system that sat 20% below the price point of comparable existing systems.
So far the densest deployment of the stations are 51 in Auckland which claims 27 defined microclimates, making it a notoriously difficult area to apply a single forecast to.
This month the company has installed its first unit on the LIC Innovation Farm in South Waikato, marking Farming2020 as part of the Tech Week initiative.
Swainson said connectivity to the internet is vital for the system, and the company was working closely to develop alternative systems to wi-fi connectivity for areas where coverage was challenging. Power comes via a solar panel system and lithium ion battery.
“We have calibrated the Bloomsky against our own sensitive equipment and found it to be extremely accurate.”
He said some farmers had asked for a soil moisture probe to be included, and while not part of the kit, MetService was sourcing out suitable suppliers to add to the system’s family of devices.
The SOE currently offers local level weather conditions on its site, as “Your Weather” but this had required some special skills to get the stations on line.
“This will just enable us to get more data points on the grid. With this it is possible a group of farmers or growers may decide to invest in some in their particular district, getting very accurate updates of (say) frost risks across their particular valley at different heights.”
Ultimately by working with partners Fonterra and LIC through Agrigate it would be possible to combine multiple data inputs to come up with “risk matrices” for certain conditions farmers may need to know about, including fire or even pugging risk on pastures.
Pasture growth predictions could also benefit for on the spot local meteorological input.
So far there are 7000 Bloomsky devices active around the world and users can engage with other devices located anywhere, through the smartphone app.
