I want to create a weather forcast network for a 100 sq km.area in
which I am farming.It will be situated near the town of Lichtenburg
[lat.26 13/lon.26 21] in South Africa.Where can we buy the best weather
station network ? How can we get access to all the realtime satellite
info for this area? Where can we get the best software to use in such
a network? We want to advise farmers on soil moisture
conditions,24hour to 5 day forcasts etc.What is this going to cost?

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Request for Question Clarification by journalist-ga on 21 Jul 2002 08:20 PDT

Are you speaking of satellite radio or satellite television?

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Request for Question Clarification by easterangel-ga on 21 Jul 2002 18:35 PDT

It seems that this is a pretty big but interesting project. What I
would want to know is that would you want to buy the equipment,
software and other stuffs by piece and install it yourself? Or would
you rather have a professional commercial weather company do this for
you and set everything up? Will US or UK products and companies do
just fine?

Hi! Thanks for the very interesting and at the same time extremely
important question.

I would like to approach the research on the two aspects of do it
yourself weather systems and of contracting a firm to set everything
up for you.

If you would prefer to set-up the system and would like to buy the
equipment piece-by- piece the following products from the Weather
Information Systems Online Mall will be of great assistance:

The following Weather View software listed on this page has broadcast
capabilities “for customers who desire to provide weather data via
cable, TV, and other means of video transmission.” I have phoned them
and they said that such software could be used in an international
setting like South Africa.

Broadcast Licensed Editions
http://www.weathermarket.com/shop/default.php?cPath=1_5

Broadcast W/Slide Show Edition
http://www.weathermarket.com/shop/default.php?cPath=1_6

The official Weather View website
http://www.weatherview32.com/index.html

Next are the weather instruments you may need for your network.
http://www.weathermarket.com/shop/default.php?cPath=10
http://www.weathermarket.com/shop/default.php?cPath=9

In terms of satellite imagery systems Orbital provides its services
world wide specifically to commercial farming and fishing industries.

Orbital Web Page
http://www.orbital.com/RelatedBusinesses/SatelliteImaging/

Intermountain has this product which specifically measures soil
moisture and other pre-configured weather stations for your needs.
http://www.inmtn.com/appagriculture.htm

Other Weather Station Systems from Intermountain
http://www.inmtn.com/systemmet.htm#et106

AWIS or (The Agricultural Weather Information Systems) provides tools
for agriculture related weather forecasting.

AWIS
http://www.awis.com/
 

The following web pages are online stores to complete your weather
network facilities:

PC Weather Products
http://www.pcwp.com/

Weathertools
http://www.weathertools.com/

Weather Shop
http://www.weathershop.com

The Weather Watchers Organization
http://www.weatherwatchers.org/wxstation/buy/

Columbia Weather Systems
http://www.columbiaweather.com/

Speranza’s Weather Service
http://www.weatherequipment.com/

Climatronics
http://www.climatronics.com/

Davis Weather Stations
http://www.davisnet.com/home_flash.asp


-----------------------
In the case of weather system vendors, they install everything or use
their own weather monitoring systems, and you call for them whenever
you encounter a problem with the service or product. If the company
has good technical support, there should be less headaches but it will
cost a lot more than if you bought and integrate all the systems by
yourself. The following vendor websites also do not generally show
prices and systems cost since these things vary depending on the
difficulty of a task. Just like when you want to implement configured
software in your business.

The following are a list of vendors:

Meteorological Solutions Inc.
http://www.metsolution.com/

About the company
http://www.metsolution.com/aboutmsi.htm

Contact Information
http://www.metsolution.com/contact_us.htm

Services
http://www.metsolution.com/services.htm

Current Projects
http://www.metsolution.com/projects.htm
------------------------

Campbell Scientific Inc.
http://www.campbellsci.com/

Agriculture Weather Services
http://www.campbellsci.com/centers/ag.html
Campbell Africa Office Contact Information
http://www.campbellsci.com/africa.html
------------------------

Climate Data Services
http://www.metdata.com/

Contact Information
http://www.metdata.com/companyinfo.htm
-----------------------

Custom Weather
http://www.metdata.com/companyinfo.htm

Products and Services
http://www.metdata.com/companyinfo.htm

Contact Information
http://www.metdata.com/companyinfo.htm
----------------------

DynCorp Solutions
http://dynis.is.dyncorp.com/markets/weather.html

About DynCorp
http://dynis.is.dyncorp.com/visitors/index.html

------------------------

Enterprise Electronics Corporation
http://www.eecradar.com/

Products and Services
http://www.eecradar.com/products.htm

Contact Information
http://www.eecradar.com/contact_infomation.htm
------------------------

Marty Systems Inc. (They also serve international markets like
Columbia and Peru)
http://www.martasys.com/index.htm

Corporate Information
http://www.martasys.com/corporate.htm

Products and Services
http://www.martasys.com/service.htm

Contact Information
http://www.martasys.com/contact.htm
-------------------------

AWS is somewhat different since it already has the mechanics working
and you just pay for the data and display systems that you wish to
use.

AWS Home Page
http://www.aws.com/aws_2001/default.asp

About AWS
http://www.aws.com/aws_2001/asp/about.asp

Contact Info:
http://www.aws.com/aws_2001/asp/contact.asp

----------------------------------

Meridian Environmental Technology
http://www.meridian-enviro.com/

Agricultural Weather Products
http://www.meridian-enviro.com/products/ag.html
------------------------------------

NovaLynx Corp.
http://www.novalynx.com/index.html

Products and Services
http://www.novalynx.com/products.html

Contact Information
http://www.novalynx.com/contact.html

Search terms used:
Commercial weather systems products
Agriculture soil moisture measurements

I hope this is what you were looking for. Please ask for a
clarification if you have a question or if you would need further
information. I wish you luck on the project. Thanks for being a part
of Google Answers!

Regards,
Easterangel-ga

Hi frik-ga 

After an online research, I could trace an organisation called
"WeatherMatrix". "It is a worldwide organization of over 2000 online
amateur and professional weather enthusiasts -- meteorologists, storm
chasers and spotters, and weather observers from all parts of the
globe." http://www.weatherwatchers.org/about/

"You could find the details on the Weather Stations (Hardware) and
Weather Station Software" at
http://www.weatherwatchers.org/wxstation/

Other Information:
Coastal Environmental Systems ( http://www.coastalenvironmental.com )
manufactures custom and production environmental sensor
instrumentation for use in remote, rugged and/or complex environments.
They offer ZENOŽ AGRICULTURAL WEATHER STATION. Find more details at
http://www.coastalenvironmental.com/weather/wsagrizeno.html

Sites of Interest:

Deatils on "Weather View 32 - The real-time weather station monitoring
with internet support software"
http://www.weatherview32.com/

"Find the list of Weather Station Software and Weather Stations."
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/index.asp 

Hope this helps to some extend!
OnlinExpert