Tipping bucket rain gauge
Station information
Each of eight stations consists of two tipping bucket rain gauges, a
data logger (Campbell Scientific CR10X), a power source (10 W solar
panel, solar controller, 12V 42 amp-hr battery), and a device for data
transmission (Sierra Wireless AirLink Raven RV50). A contract is held
with AT+T for data transmission.
Raw data (time stamps of 0.01 inch tips) are recorded to the data
logger and transmitted hourly via the Raven to University of Maryland,
Baltimore County (UMBC) and stored in a data base at UMBC. Data
streaming into UMBC are checked after every storm. Raw data can be
viewed online at http://his10.umbc.edu/Precip/. If a station fails to
transmit data, the station is visited after a storm for
troubleshooting. Otherwise, stations are visited every 60 days to
remove debris and trim weeds, check wiring and moving parts, clean
solar panels, and remove any spider webs and insect nests. The rain
gauges are not heated and therefore do not accurately record
precipitation during snow and ice events. The rain gauges are deployed
at locations listed in Table 1.
The following QA/QC procedure is applied to the raw data to prepare
for publication. (1) False tips are removed from the records; (2) snow
and ice events are removed from the records; (3) a script is applied
to the raw data to (a) accumulate the data to one-minute increments to
derive a rain-rate time series; (b) apply a laboratory-derived
calibration curve to the rain-rate time series, where a calibration is
unique to a rain gauge; and convert the data to desired units for
publication (e.g., mm/min).
Type of instrument: Tipping bucket rain gauge
Manufacturer: All Weather Inc. (formerly Qualimetrics Inc.)
http://www.allweatherinc.com/
Model number: 6011-A
Orifice opening: 8 in diameter (20 cm)
Sensitivity: 0.01 in (0.25 mm)
Manufacturer's specified calibrated accuracy: +/-0.5% at 0.5 in/hr.
Manufacturer's specified repeatability: +/-3%
Abstract: Rain depth is collected using model 6011-A tipping bucket
rain gauges manufactured by All Weather Inc. (formerly Qualimetrics).
Two raingauges (RG1 and RG2) are installed at each of eight stations.
Each rain gauge tip represents a depth of 0.01 inches of rainfall.
Data are recorded by a data logger at the station and telemetered
hourly to UMBC, where the data are stored in a data base. The rain
gauges are not heated and therefore snow and ice storms are removed
from the published record. The QA/QC procedure applied to the raw data
includes removal of false tips and snow/ice events, accumulating tip
data to a time series in inches/min, applying a laboratory-based
calibration curve to the data, and converting corrected data to a
one-minute time series in units of mm/min for publication.
Station name Station ID serial number* RG2 serial number*
Carrie Murray Nature Center (WXCMNC), 2821, 2238
Carroll Park Golf Course (WXCPGC), 2244, 2494
Dead Run near Catonsville (WXDRNC), 2473, 2486
Glyndon Elementary School (WXGFGL), 2126, 2255
Gwynns Falls Near Delight (WXGFND), 2157, 2168
McDonogh School (WXMCDO), 2231, 2248
Oregon Ridge Park (WXORDG), ,2250, 2124
UMBC Campus (WXUMBC), 2252, 2873
* Deployment locations as of 12/31/2017
For further information contact: Claire Welty, UMBC, weltyc@umbc.edu
