• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Interesting UCAR Open Source project: "3D Paws" - Real 3D printed weather stations

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Don't know how many here have 3D Printers (or want an excuse to get yo'self one) ;) but I found this to be very interesting:

Here's a nice overview (a PDF of a Powerpoint presentation from late 2017): http://www.un-spider.org/sites/default/files/21. UNSPIDER Presentation - Mwangi.pdf

Here is an article about the initiative on UCAR: https://www.iepas.ucar.edu/core-programs/3dpaws/
Interesting quote at the end under "Example Applications":
  • Regional weather forecasting
    Observations from the 3D-PAWS network can be assimilated into regional numerical weather prediction systems such as the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF: http://www.wrf-model.org) model to improve mesoscale weather forecasts.
So it is not clear to me if this initiative is being encouraged in the United States, or not. However the project is Open Source. The 3D Printed parts can all be found here, along with the Manual.

A separate part of this, which also looks interesting (but may not be for the general public?) is CHORDS (Cloud Hosted Real-time Data Services). This is essentially a "shrink-wrapped" package that lets you log into your AWS (Amazon Cloud) account and install a portal that connects your weather station observations to "Big Data" in the cloud.

What is CHORDS?

A link to UCAR's CHORD portal along with others.

Now a 3D printed weather station is probably not going to be robust enough to put on your chase vehicle, but this might be a cool way to create a mesonet, particularly if one got some funding. These are two of the most exciting projects (both 3D-PAWS and CHORDS) that I have seen for a long time.

Thoughts?
 
Don't know how many here have 3D Printers (or want an excuse to get yo'self one) ;) but I found this to be very interesting:

Here's a nice overview (a PDF of a Powerpoint presentation from late 2017): http://www.un-spider.org/sites/default/files/21. UNSPIDER Presentation - Mwangi.pdf

Here is an article about the initiative on UCAR: 3D-Printed Automatic Weather Station (3D-PAWS) Initiative – IEPAS
Interesting quote at the end under "Example Applications":
  • Regional weather forecasting
    Observations from the 3D-PAWS network can be assimilated into regional numerical weather prediction systems such as the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF: http://www.wrf-model.org) model to improve mesoscale weather forecasts.
So it is not clear to me if this initiative is being encouraged in the United States, or not. However the project is Open Source. The 3D Printed parts can all be found here, along with the Manual.

A separate part of this, which also looks interesting (but may not be for the general public?) is CHORDS (Cloud Hosted Real-time Data Services). This is essentially a "shrink-wrapped" package that lets you log into your AWS (Amazon Cloud) account and install a portal that connects your weather station observations to "Big Data" in the cloud.

What is CHORDS?

A link to UCAR's CHORD portal along with others.

Now a 3D printed weather station is probably not going to be robust enough to put on your chase vehicle, but this might be a cool way to create a mesonet, particularly if one got some funding. These are two of the most exciting projects (both 3D-PAWS and CHORDS) that I have seen for a long time.

Thoughts?
@Darren Addy Did you end up trying the 3D-PAWS system?
 
I did not. We bought a house and moved so my wife has other projects pushed somewhat ahead of my preferred 3d printer utilization schedule. :/
 
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