Upgrading Fiji’s climate monitoring network

The Fiji Meteorological Service’s (FMS) climate monitoring network is being upgraded. NIWA technician Andrew Harper was recently in Viti Levu assisting with installation and commissioning of new telemetered rain gauges as part of this project.

This is the second year of a three-year project to upgrade the FMS climate monitoring network. Andrew worked with local FMS staff to install the tipping-bucket rain gauges and associated Internet Protocol-based Neon telemetered data loggers.

The telemetered network now includes 16 rain gauges. Thirteen stations are located on Viti Levu, two gauges on Vanua Levu, and one on Ovalau. All gauges record five-minute rainfall totals with data transmitted to the FMS every 30 minutes, using the local cellular network. The data are collected using NIWA’s Flosys data telemetry system, and archived in a data storage system called Tideda.   

The data will be used by FMS for rainfall monitoring and forecasting, flood warning systems, monthly and seasonal climate monitoring and prediction, including drought monitoring and prediction, and climate change analyses.  It will also meet the needs for rainfall information in other sectors such as the construction industry.

Contact

Andrew Harper,  [email protected]

 

Andrew Harper and Waisiki Tabua install a rainfall station at Lodoni, on the East Coast of Viti Levu. [Photo: A. Chandra, Fiji Met Service]

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