Residents in and around Gerugambakkam, Porur need no longer depend on measurements in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam for rainfall data as a new 50-feet automatic rain gauge (ARG) station to be installed in the locality at LMOIS Kolapakkam.
They are installed by the Indian Meteorological Department in Chennai to provide location-specific weather data. Equipped to measure humidity, rainfall and temperature, they will help make accurate forecasts, specifying the rainfall variability. Chennai will be the third metropolis after Delhi and Mumbai to get such as station.
The rainfall, humidity and temperature of the area can be measured with the ARG, which runs on solar power. It is an effort at arranging a denser network of weather monitoring," said B Amudha, scientist, Regional Instruments Maintenance Centre at the Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai. Nine more ARGs are to come up at Taramani, Anna University, Hindustan University, LMOIS Kolapakkam, Poonamallee, Chembarambakkam, Puzhal, Kattupakkam and Avadi by mid-April
Y E A Raj, deputy director-general of meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre in Chennai, said hourly data will be transmitted to a geostationary satellite, which will re-transmit the data to the receiving earth station at Pune. "The data will help to validate the measurements from the Doppler radar," he said.
Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-30/chennai/31260153_1_args-automatic-rain-gauge-stations-doppler-radar