Unmanned Weather Station Real-time Data Dissemination via Twitter

Abstract

Knowing what the weather will be like is important for most human activities. Therefore, most meteorological services are available online but provide generalized information. It is more reliable if a person can get weather information from their real-time environment. This project aims to create a point-specific online platform to distribute rapid and accurate meteorological data from a real-time environment of interest and send that data on social media without human involvement, using a fully automated system. This project used industrial sensors such as BME 280 for temperature, humidity, and pressure, ML8511 sensor to measure Ultraviolet radiation as an index, and customized sensors to get wind speed, wind direction, solar light intensity, and rain gauge. ESP 32 is a microcontroller used to process data and send that data to Google Sheets and Twitter. All the weather parameters are in standard units, and 0.01 accuracy of the reading. This is a fully automated system that uses a solar panel to run during the day and at night, using battery power that is charged during the day using solar power. In this instrument, most of the sensors are calibrated using chemical methods and laboratory instruments. The instrument is tested for several days indoors and several weeks outdoors. In testing, there are different weather scenarios, so all the instrument parameters are tested in real-time in the real world. In indoor testing, under less solar light conditions, it runs smoothly all day with the built-in battery for 4 to 5 days without charging. Using solar panels and batteries as a power source, it can run without human involvement. The purpose of the project is to send a designed unmanned weather station that sends weather data as a Twitter message, so the system is working smoothly; hence, the overall project is completed.