TITLE:
Design of a Microcontroller-Based Data Acquisition System for Ground Weather Observations: Evaluation of Radio Refractivity of Air
AUTHORS:
Amar Adane, Ania Ali Yahia, Essaid Mameri, Abd-El-Hamid Adane
KEYWORDS:
Microcontroller, Sensors, C Programming, Meteorology, Radio Refractivity
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Communications, Network and System Sciences,
Vol.7 No.9,
September
2,
2014
ABSTRACT:
A meteorological data
acquisition system is built using a PIC16F877A microcontroller and electric
output-based sensors. This system is programmed in C language using the PCWH
compiler. It is smart, accurate, cheap, small, light and easily movable. It is
designed to automatically get instantaneous measurements of air temperature,
atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity. Depending on their utilisation,
these measurements are collected with repetition rate tuneable from one minute
to one hour. They are displayed on LCD screen and transferred to a personal
computer where they are stored and processed. As an application, such data are
recorded in situ and used to estimate
the radio refractivity of air near the ground in real time. This parameter is necessary
to account for the propagation of radiofrequency waves through the lower
atmosphere, during wireless transmissions.