• 18 new stations for the National Agrometeorological Network (RAN)
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    18 new stations for the National Agrometeorological Network (RAN)

18 new stations for the National Agrometeorological Network (RAN)

March 2023

CAE, winner of the tender launched by CREA, relating to the four-year framework agreement for the turnkey supply and maintenance of 39 stations, spread throughout the national territory, for the acquisition of data necessary for the reconstruction of meteorological events (temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, etc.) of the National Agrometeorological Network (RAN), signed the second executive contract at the end of December 2022.

The object of this contract concerns the turnkey supply and maintenance of an additional 18 weather stations, which will replace as many control units, currently not working, of the National Agrometeorological Network and which will go alongside the 12 provided for by the first executive contract stipulated at the beginning of 2022 (to learn more click here) of which more than half are already active and functional. In addition, the provision of the software platform on a virtual machine for the acquisition, viewing and managing of the data from the network has already been completed, making this data also available on Microsoft's Azure IoT platform.

We want to dedicate a few lines to the first station to have been updated under the first contract, as recognised by the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) as a centuries-old station, located at Collegio Romano, headquarters of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities. It is a very impressive site, in the heart of Rome, located on Torre Calandrelli, built by Giuseppe Calandrelli, priest of the Secular Order, astronomer and mathematician, for observations. The station records data from 1787, providing one of the oldest meteorological series in the world. From here, declares Stefano Vaccari, Director General of CREA, in the nineteenth century, the first weather forecasts were made, intended as a systematic service of forecasting and warning of storms, by the Jesuit Angelo Secchi.

The monitoring network, located throughout the country, will be populated by the brand new CAE stations powered by a solar panel rechargeable battery, equipped with a Compact datalogger and new sensors such as: radiometer, THS thermo-hygrometer, leaf-wetness sensors, anemometer, PG2R rain gauge, barometer, thermometers for surface and soil temperatures.

The stations will be equipped with a UMTS/GPRS modem, that will send the detected data to the CREA control unit in Rome, on a Cloud web platform, where, thanks to the new software for acquisition and display via WEB provided by CAE, it will be possible to perform continuous and real-time monitoring, as well as to allow station configuration, alarm management and data validation. CAE will guarantee not only supply but also services: the stations will be maintained thanks to a preventive and corrective maintenance service, together with remote maintenance and assistance, and an H24 availability service.

The agro-meteorological quantities measured by the RAN stations will be used for the reconstruction of meteorological events (temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, etc.), as well as for the monitoring of the agricultural season. The data collected will be acquired on an hourly basis and systematically checked as far as their correctness, physical and weather/climate consistency, before being archived in the CREA Cloud web platform and subsequently in the National Agro-meteorological Database of the National Agricultural Information System (SIAN).


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