February 15, 2006 - Weather Station Now Sits Atop Science & Technology Center
Through the efforts of the Geological and Marine Sciences Department, Rider has a weather station atop the Science and Technology Center that reports almost to the second weather conditions on the Lawrenceville campus.
Assistant Professor Reed Schwimmer was instrumental in the department’s purchase and installation of the Davis Instruments Vantage Pro weather station and LCD monitor.
What Dr. Schwimmer finds exciting is that, while the data are primarily for classroom use, the department can share the “instant” weather data with the campus community. In the lobby located at the west end of the Science and Technology Center, there is a large monitor that displays data for eight current weather conditions – barometric pressure, outside temperature, wind direction, wind speed, wind chill factor, rainfall amount, humidity, and dew point. The system also can be setup to provide additional readings and to display charts of changing weather parameters over time.
“We wanted to have a source of weather data that we could use in our classrooms, so relationships between atmospheric processes and meteorological effects can be established and explored,” said Dr. Schwimmer. He said such discussion is particularly valuable in the department’s Earth systems science, oceanography, and environmental sciences classes. Other classes could also find data useful. For example, Dr. Hongbing Sun could find rain data important in the soils and surficial processes class, while Dr. Laura Hyatt could use similar data in the general ecology class.
Campus community members can access the current weather data on the Web at www.rider.edu/~weather. Currently the Web site displays the data in a tabular format. In the next few months, however, Dr. Schwimmer will be working with three senior computer information systems students to design and implement a graphic-rich Web site with possible links to local radar data. This project will provide real-world, hands-on experience for the students in Web site development, Dr. Schwimmer said.
He also praised the assistance the department received from the Office of Information Technology and Facilities to hard wire and install the weather station to a computer and monitor.
In the near future, Rider could also become one of the many sites around the state to have its weather information shown online through the New Jersey Climate Data Center.
