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Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network (AEMN). Established in 1991 Housed on UGA Griffin Campus in Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
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Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network (AEMN) • Established in 1991 • Housed on UGA Griffin Campus in Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences • Goal: To collect detailed weather information and other environmental variables across the State of Georgia
Measurements • Air temperature • Humidity • Precipitation • Soil moisture • Soil temperature (three depths) • Wind speed and direction • Air pressure • Solar radiation • Some stations also measure one or more of: Open pan evaporation. Water temperature. Leaf wetness. PAR (photosynthetically active radiation).
Dissemination • A summary is calculated every 15 minutes. • Daily summaries are calculated at midnight. • Data is sent to a computer on the UGA Griffin campus by radio, internet, land line phone, or cellular modem. • Data made available to public in near real time at www.georgiaweather.net • N.B. New Web address: weather.uga.edu
Applications • Degree days • Chilling hours • First and last frost dates and frost protection • Wind chill and heat indices • Wet bulb globe temperature • Environmental heat stress • Heating and cooling requirements • Irrigation management and water conservation • K-12 Education • Crop Modeling
Support • Annual budget approx $350K • UGA salary support $150K • Remainder from data sales, grants, support from user groups. E.g. Forestry commission. • AEMN is NOT in imminent danger of closing.
User Examples • In September 2010 the AEMN had over 60,400 separate visitors, representing 49 states and 82 countries. Almost 300,000 of the individual hits were from within Georgia. • County agents polled informally at meetings repeatedly identify the Georgia Weather Network as their main source of current weather information, as it is for many of the farmers they support. • The regional energy utility Southern Company, requiring information on power demand and temperatures for billing purposes, makes extensive use of AEMN. They are responsible for about 13% of site visits. • Peanut growers use a calculator at the AEMN website to determine the risk of tomato spotted wilt, and fruit producers utilize a chilling degree-day calculator to determine if their peaches, blueberries, etc. have met dormancy requirements for bloom in spring.