Excerpt from climatelinks.org blog post: African Scientists Harness the Power of 3D Printing to Monitor and Forecast Extreme Weather
Paul Kucera and Martin Steinson from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) said international meteorological organizations have been aware of the structural and financial challenges with commercial weather stations for decades. In 2013, UCAR scientist Kelly Sponberg came to Kucera and Steinson with a sustainable solution: 3D printing. Together, the group developed a prototype for the first 3D-Printed Automatic Weather Station (3D-PAWS), giving local meteorological organizations the potential to fabricate and maintain weather stations independently and at low costs. 3D-PAWS surface weather stations can be manufactured in just one week for between $400–$600 using locally sourced materials, microsensor technology, low-cost microcontrollers, and a 3D printer.
"It started to catch on as a technology that could be used for filling the gaps that existed with the traditional high-cost weather stations," noted Kucera.
See the full article: African Scientists Harness the Power of 3D Printing to Monitor and Forecast Extreme Weather
Learn more about 3-D PAWS on the COMET website.
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Rachel Dammann
UCAR/NCAR/UCP
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