Visit to the South African Weather Service
Published: Tuesday, April 8, 2014
In March 2014, Johan Visagie from Campbell Scientific Africa and Paulien Adema, from Kipp & Zonen, visited the South African Weather Service (SAWS). SAWS is an authoritative source for weather and climate forecasting in South Africa and as a member of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), SAWS complies with international meteorological standards.
SAWS' countrywide observational network consists of an impressive range of meteorological stations of all types. There are 214 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), a Baseline Surface Radiation Network Station (BSRN) in De Aar and a national UVB Biometer network, to name just a few.
Campbell Scientific Africa (CSA) is one of the proud suppliers to this large network of meteorological instruments and data loggers. More recently the SAWS invested in six solar monitoring stations, which will be installed at strategic locations throughout South Africa. The solar radiation information collected through these stations will be used to create a baseline solar map for South Africa.
We thank Gerrie Coetzee, researcher, and Riaan Lourens, responsible for data collection and instrument maintenance, for the opportunity to visit the measurement field near the SAWS head office in Pretoria and for the warm welcome.
From left to right: Paulien Adema of Kipp & Zonen, Johan Visagie of Campbell Scientific South Africa and Riaan Lourens of SAWS