UM weather station to collect climate data

OLD TOWN – A new U.S. weather station at the University of Maine’s Rogers Farm is part of a system that will provide national climate data for the 21st century. The automated facility is part of the Climate Reference Network being developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The UMaine site is one of over 100 similar stations being erected to monitor weather across the country. The only other network station in Maine is in the Aroostook Wildlife Refuge in Limestone. When complete, NOAA expects the network to have 250 stations.

According to Greg Zielinski, Maine state climatologist and research associate professor in the UMaine Institute for Quaternary and Climate Studies, the goal is to provide data for climate trend analysis with a minimum of adjustments for changes in monitoring conditions.

NOAA contacted UMaine last spring to make arrangements for the station, which was built in September. Zielinski and Steve Reiling, director of the Maine Agricultural Center who oversees UMaine’s research farms, assisted with the search for suitable sites on the UMaine campus.

Rogers Farm was chosen because it is likely to stay undeveloped for the long term, according to Zielinski.

The facility includes three temperature sensors as well as equipment to monitor wind speed, relative humidity, solar radiation and precipitation. Data from the UMaine station are transmitted by satellite to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee where they are made available to researchers and the public.

More information about the Climate Reference Network and data from the UMaine station can be seen at http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/servlets/crnall.